Lost Again: After Ajira 316
by Lola'sStillLOST
Summary: What happened after the Island and before "The End?"   - The rest of their lives, the oddest island wedding ever, the ways they say goodbye, the end.
1. Richard doesn't stick around

**Chapter One: Richard doesn't stick around**

None of them could agree on when Richard Alpert had disappeared. Kate remembered him running in front of her and to her right as they headed toward the tree line parallel to the runway. Claire said no, the last they'd seen Richard he was standing in front of the plane. She remembered a glimpse of him holding several armed guards at bay with nothing more than an upraised hand and a few words in a language she didn't recognize. She remembered wondering as she ran how many languages he knew.

Miles and Sawyer agreed later that to them, it was as if Richard had disappeared right off of the plane as illogical as that sounded. They both noticed how he didn't leave his seat when it taxied to a stop, how he sat with his hands folded, fingertips under his chin looking determined and maybe a little angry. Sawyer said it seemed like Richard had made up his mind about something he had to do next, something he hadn't shared with them and something he wasn't very happy about at all.

Hours before they'd landed, the group had agreed on their plan. Sawyer and Miles would wait a beat while Kate, Claire, Richard and Frank threw the handmade ladder that had been crafted on the island over the side of the plane, climbed down and distracted any security that might show up. Then the Sawyer and Miles would do their best to slip off unseen and head for the one place no one would expect them to run: Straight to the airport terminal and the money, clothing and supplies inside that might help them all get away and on their way home.

Only two flights land each week at the Nauru Airport. Odds were that an unannounced, unexpected jumbo jet setting down on the lone asphalt strip at INU would raise not only a fair amount of attention but maybe a little panic, too. They could only hope that by waiting, and landing late at night they might manage to evade whoever came out to confront them. In the best scenario they could come up with, no one would emerge in time to challenge them and they'd all make a clean escape. At worst, security might catch every one of them. Then the questions would start: Where was the plane during the days since it had disappeared off radar on its way from LAX to Guam? How did people never on the original flight list end up on board? Where were the other passengers, the luggage? And complicating matters was one simple fact: Most of them had no I.D. on them, and very good reasons not to want to answer questions about who they were and how they came to be on board Ajira-316.

The landing was smooth but their getaway less so. For a few seconds after they'd popped the door open and started climbing down, they felt only a heavy, humid silence and saw a moon so bright the runway glowed faintly. But then they heard voices headed their way. Kate and Claire barely made the tree line in time. Sawyer and Miles were spotted, chased and tackled, and had to fight their way clear. They abandoned their plan to raid the airport gift shop and offices for supplies, and ran instead for the residential neighborhood near the airport in search of Kate and Claire.

And as for when it was that Richard had disappeared, Frank Lapidus was the most confused of them all. He was sure Richard had been right with him all the way, talking down the guards, agreeing to explain how they'd come here and who they were, walking with him to the airport door— Richard was right there up until the moment when he was gone. And on top of it all, the guards expressed no surprise at all, never looked for or asked about Richard. It was like they'd never seen him. They simply sat Frank down in the lobby, posted a guard and left him waiting for whatever was coming next.

Most people would have felt a hollow chill from their scalp to their shoes to be left to fend for themselves that abruptly, to have gone from six of them in it together to being alone with so much to explain. But Frank could only shake his head in amazement at how surprised he was not at that moment.

That was 108 days ago. The rest of the story of the return of Ajira-316, and how those on board made it back home will need to get told later. But now, 108 days after the plane touched down, Kate, Claire, Sawyer, Miles and Frank each had one thing on their minds. Every one of them wanted to find Richard Alpert, for very different reasons. And for one of them, it was turning into a matter of life or death.


	2. Building Team Hurley

**Building Team Hurley**

"I have to say, I'm a little surprised we're headed into the jungle and not making our way down to the heart of the island," Ben followed Hurley, who was walking at a fast clip and swatting at tree branches. As long as he'd lived here, Ben couldn't imagine where they were going. There wasn't much in front of them for miles as far as he knew except for more of the same.

But he was heartened that Hurley seemed to be taking charge, at least a little. Hurley had been crushed and tearful when it hit him Jack was dead. Ben had given him some words of encouragement, reminded him that there'd be time for mourning later but that they had a lot to do right now. It didn't seem to help at first. Ben was making a mental note that he should start honing his persuasive skills that didn't involve exploitive manipulation and fear, when Hurley suddenly stood up and asked him to follow.

"I expected you'd want to try to find Jack, or … well, find his body," Ben said.

"I'll be going to get him soon," Hurley's voice was flat but determined. "But not he's not where you think he is, he's not in the cave with the light anymore."

"How do you know where he is?"

"The island told me."

Ben picked up his pace to catch up and stopped Hurley with a hand to the shoulder.

"What do you mean, the island told you? The monster said the same thing to me once, before I realized it wasn't really John Locke. He said the island had told him where and when to go to the site of the crashed drug plane… so that Richard could tell him how to get the rest of you back here."

"Oh, man, can we please leave the time travel out of it for now?" Hurley looked truly pained. "My head hurts enough without adding all that confusion to the conversation. Seriously, the time traveling had better be over for good, because if it starts up again I think it'll kill me. Then you'll have to run this place on your own. Wouldn't that be funny?"

Hurley took a few steps away to fill his canteen in a stream.

"You'd finally be getting what you wanted, right?"

"No, it wouldn't be funny. And it's definitely not what I want… anymore." Ben said. "I'm sorry, I know you're still in shock. It doesn't matter exactly why or where the monster told me that story. It's just that once I realized it was him and not Locke who was speaking, I assumed he'd been lying and he just knew where to go from past experience. I've never heard of the island talking to anyone. Is it literally like it's speaking to you?"

Ben asked it urgently, but without the bitter jealousy he'd carried around when he thought Locke had a closer communion with his own home than he'd ever had.

"No, it's not like that. It's more like I just know things I didn't know a minute ago. Not everything about this place, but some things. I know where Jack went to die. I know where we'll find Desmond."

Hurley started walking again, but slowly.

"I can see them. It feels like I'm remembering things, but I know they're not memories, they're things that are happening right now."

"Well then maybe you won't need a Number Two helping you out for very long at all, Hugo." There was some disappointment in Ben's voice.

"Oh yes I will," Hurley said. "I've got so much to learn I can't even think about it all right now. I'll have to wait and think about it tomorrow, or I'll throw myself off that cliff I almost jumped off of once."

"Really?" Ben was taken aback. "You were going to do that? A candidate can't kill himself, something would have stopped you."

"Yes, something did," Hurley said. "Someone, actually. Libby did." He stopped.

"We're near the cabin where Rose and Bernard are living. Let me do the talking, okay? They don't have any reason to trust you yet, and well, it's going to take awhile before they do. Bernard might take my word for it. But Rose, she's no-nonsense, man, and she doesn't like you."

"Don't worry about my feelings, Hurley," Ben grimaced. "I'm very used to it. As long as she doesn't try to beat me senseless, I'll be ahead of the game, really."

Bernard saw them coming first, and called Rose who was within earshot hanging out their laundry. They walked over to greet Hurley, Bernard with a handshake and Rose with a long silent hug. Hurley looked her in the eye and shook his head, fighting back tears one more time.

"I take it your war with that hateful thing is over, and you won," Rose said. "Or you wouldn't be here, Hurley, you'd still be doing whatever it took to stop it." Hurley nodded. "But not everyone made it, I guess?"

"Kate did. Kate, Sawyer, Claire. Miles from the freighter, and Richard Alpert too. They're gone, Frank Lapidus, the pilot flew them away."

"Flew them away? With what?" Bernard asked as Rose led Hurley to a long wooden table. Hurley and Rose sat while Bernard got them all some water, wordlessly handing Ben a cup too. He took it and sat in a chair a few feet away.

"They left with the plane we flew back to the island on. Jack died fighting with the smoke monster. But first he and Kate killed it, and Jack saved the island. Then he died. He died about an hour ago."

There was silence all around for awhile. Rose frowned, shook her head.

"Saved the island? Hurley, no insult to Jack but why in the world didn't he just stay home once he got there? Let me guess- now you're going to take up the fight, what, until you die protecting the island too?"

"I don't know Rose, but maybe. That's pretty much what I promised Jack I'd do," Hurley said, "And what he promised Jacob he would do. There's a lot we have to tell you… about the reasons for it all, and I promise we will. But right now the two of you are hiding out here in the jungle trying to stay safe by not taking sides and I don't think that's going to work anymore. It's not over and it's never going to be over. And I need your help."

More silence. Ben got up and brought another jug of water over, and walked around the table filling cups. Rose looked up at him.

"And what do you have to say about all this?" Rose asked him. "I don't remember you as the strong silent type, it seemed you just about never shut up all those months after we crashed here, always telling us what we had to do and why our people shouldn't leave the island. In fact you did everything you could to make our lives miserable. Why should we even consider working with you or becoming knights at your round table?"

"Hurley asked me to let him do the talking, and I'm going to let him." Ben set the water down. "All I can say is that everything I did was in the interests of the island. And now he's in charge of it, and it's my job to be his right hand man."

"I'm not sure how useful a Number Two you can be when Number One needs to keep an eye open all night to make sure he'll still be alive in the morning," Rose replied tersely, "Hurley could die of exhaustion."

"It's not going to be like that," Hurley said. "And we're going to live at the Dharma barracks, not on the beach or in the jungle. I need furniture, and rooms and a roof if I'm going to keep my head together. I don't expect you to just move there with us today, but I sure hope you both will. We need to be ready," Hurley said. Nobody asked for what.

Bernard and Rose sat looking at each other, and Bernard's face didn't move but a rueful smile was in his eyes. "It's up to you, Rose. Whatever you decide. But we've tried and they just keep coming back for us. Maybe it's time to return to being part of what passes for civilization around here."

Rose sighed. "Hurley, can we get back to you? I need a couple of days to think about this."

"Yes, but I do need your help with something right now. I need to send Ben to help Desmond get to the sailboat and head home. And I need you and Bernard to help me get Jack's body back to the beach camp."

'"Where is he, Hurley?" Bernard asked.

"The bamboo grove. I don't know the way exactly, but Vincent will take him to us."

Bernard stood up, walking around. "Speaking of which, where is Vincent? I haven't seen him for a couple of hours. He wanders more than he used to but he usually doesn't wander that long."

The words weren't out of his mouth before they heard Vincent's paws in the brush headed their way and then saw his panting, smiling face. He walked up to Hurley and sat back on his haunches.

"Well, it looks like you've got Vincent on Team Hurley, whatever happens," Rose got up, and picked up her backpack, filling it with bottles of water. "And I sure do hope you have a few more recruits in mind because I can tell you our two tired, reluctant selves are not going to be nearly enough for whatever it is you need to accomplish."

Hurley grinned a little, realizing he'd convinced her though she wasn't ready to say so yet.

"Yes, I have some ideas. But that can wait. And I need to talk with Ben first, when he gets back."

"Let's get going," Rose started walking, motioning to Vincent who barked one short bark and led the way. "Maybe we can make it to the beach by dark."

Ben left them about a tenth of a mile later. He agreed to go find Desmond, who was already off looking for a way to Hydra Island where the sailboat The Elizabeth was anchored. Ben would lead him to one of the outriggers, help him paddle over, and make sure he was underway before heading back to the site of the 815 beach camp.

"Ben, there's one more thing," Hurley motioned for him to stop. "Between now, and when Desmond sets sail, I need you to figure out a way to convince him to come back."

"What, after all he's been through? Why in the world would he ever think about coming back?"

"I know, but just the same I need you to convince him to go get Penny and Charlie and come back to work with us. Maybe not permanently, maybe they won't come live here for good but we're going to need them. And no, I don't have any brilliant ideas about how to convince him," Hurley said, slapping Ben on the back. "So good luck with that Dude, don't screw up your first assignment for me, okay?"

Hurley walked away with Rose and Bernard, leaving a stricken-looking Ben wondering what he could possibly say to convince Desmond to return.


	3. A surreal farewell

Chapter 3: A surreal farewell… not with a whimper

They made it from the bamboo grove to the beach camp with a couple of hours of daylight to spare. Hurley and Bernard carried Jack's body with the wire mesh net from the latest Dharma food drop, bamboo polls threaded through it and across their shoulders. When they got there, the guys began digging while Rose searched the remains of the camp for blankets. Then she pulled a log from the brush behind the tents and sat near Jack, watching them work.

"Nine times," she said, more to herself than them. "Nine times we've dug a grave on the beach in three years. Scott, Boone, Shannon, Ana Lucia, Libby, those two kids with the diamonds. What were their names?"

"Nikki and Paulo," Hurley said, not breaking stride with the shovel.

"Right. Now Locke, and Jack." Hurley and Bernard were digging Jack's resting place a few yards from Locke's, a fact not lost on any of them.

Rose thought about the day three years ago when Jack had walked up to her on the beach and told her she needed to drink some water, eat something, join the rest of them and stop staring out at the beach for the missing and presumed-dead Bernard. She said a prayer that after today, the burials would be over for awhile.

For some time after that, the only sounds were the big winter waves crashing on the beach and the quick, sharp noises the shovels made in the dirt.

Hurley wondered if he might see Jack soon, if he would show up with some advice from time to time like Ana Lucia, Charlie and Michael had. But he had to admit, right now it felt like the answer was no. Maybe, he thought, that was because Jack had been wrong about the island for so long and only realized it at the last minute. "You asked me to trust you," he'd said to Hurley. "This is me trusting you." That was barely a day ago, but felt like a year.

The sun was down and it was almost completely dark when they finished burying him. The sky that had been clear earlier was full of heavy clouds and it smelled like it might start raining soon. The three of them stood there, and Hurley thought that it just made no sense to be looking at Jack's grave. He'd been in so much grief when Libby died, he couldn't really feel anything else. And with the others nearby who had passed, it'd been hard burying them but not this completely confusing. For someone who wanted off of the island so badly, Hurley thought, the island felt pretty weird without Jack on it. He wondered how long it'd take for that feeling to wear off, how long he would live here and who would bury him.

"Do you want to say a few words, Hurley?" Bernard asked.

"Sure. It's just... well, Jack's the one who usually kind of got these things going."

Bernard nodded. Hurley looked out at the ocean and back to the beach.

"Goodbye, Jack. Thanks for helping us figure out how to live together when we had no idea what was happening or how we'd survive. You didn't always make the right decisions, but you kept trying. Now we have to make the decisions, and hope we'll have it in us to keep trying too."

"Well said, Hurley," Rose gathered up the shovels and started walking toward the trees. "Let's get organized, maybe we can make it back to the cabin before the rain starts."

They had only taken a few more steps when something else entirely started. The sky that had been a blue black shade with grey clouds took on a swirling green color, and a low rumble under their feet make the ground feel like an unreliable thing to stand on.

It kept shaking as the rumble turned into an enormous, echoing bang that shook fruit off the trees and sent rocks and pebbles skittering down a nearby hill. They stumbled back toward the beach to get away from the trees and what was falling out of them, just in time to see a brilliant, white light start sweeping in a circle like a strobe, seemingly around the entire island. They tried to tell if it was coming from the water or the sky, but it was so bright they could only shield their faces and get glimpses of it.

Hurley counted- one, two, three, four… five times the white light circled, then stopped in place and went out as abruptly as it had appeared, leaving them almost blinded until their eyes adjusted. And then there they were, looking out at their beach, the graveyard, the remains of the camp, just as if it had never happened.

"That wasn't…the smoke monster, was it?" Rose asked herself as much as the other two.

"No, no way," Hurley said, "It's dead, I know it is. And that was no tika-tika-tika, that sounded like the whole island got picked up and slammed back down. I would think maybe it really had except the waves are coming in perfectly normally."

"I don't think we moved again either- no headache, no white flash. Just that light. Any other ideas?" Bernard asked, and then they stood there in silence.

"Absolutely no freaking clue." Hurley said. They all looked at each other and started to laugh, and they laughed so hard they couldn't breathe. Rose had to walk back to a tree and hold on to collect herself.

"Well, Hurley, your kitchen cabinet may not be much help figuring this place out, but at least we're battle-hardened," she said. "Hopefully Ben will have some ideas for you tomorrow, if whatever that was doesn't kill us all by then."

Then they walked back to the cabin under a sky that was suddenly so perfectly clear you could see the points on every star. Bernard and Rose talked quietly with each other, Hurley just ahead of them. He realized that for the first time he could remember, and despite the latest shock to their systems he felt perfectly and very oddly at home.

He stayed at their camp that night and slept for 12 hours. When he woke up, they were both off somewhere and Vincent was sitting by his side, wide-awake and watching him expectantly.

Hurley left a note, "See you soon. Vincent's with me," and the two of them started out for Dharmaville.


	4. In Portland

**In Portland**

It took Ben eight days to make it from the island to Oregon. Going there meant that he was leaving Hurley on his own just a few weeks after he had stepped into his new leadership role, and while neither of them was thrilled about that it was just the way it had to be.

Their "to do" list was long and included fixing up the damaged Dharma barracks and seeing if any of the communications equipment at the Flame could be salvaged. If not, they'd have to start from scratch at building up lines of communication to the outside world. Hurley and Bernard could handle the first look-through on those matters, but someone had to go off-island and make tricky things happen involving both new recruits and very expensive equipment. Ben had the contacts and the experience when it came to all that.

They had argued over only one thing: Who to bring back to the island and when. Hurley maintained if he was going to fully commit to staying forever, he had to have a few people around him: His parents, first, and also Walt. They both agreed it wouldn't be like the Jacobean era: No lines of chalk on a wall, no forced arrivals. People would have a choice about coming there, and they could come and go, too. But Hurley didn't want to live in a vacuum, with his old life a world away and untouchable. And he had a feeling they needed Walt and Walt would need them.

While Ben understood, he made the argument that it'd be better to wait to bring Walt back: Until there were places for people to live comfortably, and until they'd figured out the source of that anomaly that had shook them all up so much the first night of Hurley's time in charge.

Ben had felt and heard it too, right about the time that Hurley, Rose and Bernard had buried Jack. He felt an enormous thump underfoot, heard the deafening bang and then saw the brilliant white light that flashed around the island five times before going out as if it had never been there. Hurley had hoped Ben might have some clue what it was all about, but Ben only looked at him with eyes wide with astonishment.

"I've lived here since I was barely ten and I've never seen anything like it," Ben said under his breath a couple of days later as they all hauled boxes from the latest Dharma food drop to New Otherton. "And what worries me most is I thought we had a pretty clear handle on every piece of every Dharma hatch and all their wacky, soft-science projects on the island. It almost has to be something to do with one of them, something we've missed all this time… unless maybe…"

"I'm not crazy about your first thought, but I'm liking this even less," Hurley said. "Unless maybe what?"

"Maybe the enemy had a Plan B we never knew about."

"The enemy, as in that guy Widmore and his global conglomerate with tentacles all over the world and billions of dollars to play with? You mean shooting him dead wouldn't shut all that down? How could that possibly be?"

"That's possible, Hurley, and not to scare you but frankly it could be even worse: Maybe it's a new enemy, a faction in the Widmore camp that smelled an opportunity. The only thing worse than the enemy you know is the one you don't know."

Hurley smiled a rueful smile and shook his head. "Guess we'd better get a move-on, huh?"

Once they'd set out their plans, there was the trick of actually getting Ben off the island. Desmond hadn't returned yet, though he'd agreed he would. Hurley still had hope he would show up, though Ben wasn't sure Penny would ever actually allow that to happen again. That left them with only on viable option: The frozen donkey wheel.

"I thought this thing was broken, man," Hurley followed Ben through the tunnel that led from the inner sanctum of the Orchid station to the chamber with the wheel itself. The closest he'd ever gotten to this place was above ground, in the garden of the Orchid hearing John Locke and Jack argue about whether it was right for the 815'ers to leave the island or not.

As Hurley struggled his way down the very steep tunnel step by step, he found himself wishing again that they'd all just believed Locke. "Note to self," he thought, reaching out into the dark with one foot, "Wishful thinking won't get you down a rocky tunnel. In fact it won't get you much of anything at all."

"I thought the wheel broke, and that caused the island to start traveling through time. How are we supposed to use it now" Hurley asked. They were in front of it, thankfully done climbing downward.

"It didn't break, Hurley, it was off center, off-kilter." Ben walked around it, sizing things up. Hurley could hear the familiar thrumming sound, the same sound they used to notice through the concrete walls of the Swan hatch. It was the sound of the island's electromagnetic pockets singing out.

"John fixed the wheel by turning it and setting it back on the track," Ben said. "I don't particularly want to use it now, it's always been a measure of last resort. But we both know what has to be done."

"Um, Ben," Hurley put a tentative hand on the wheel, then pulled it off fast when he realized it wasn't just a name, the thing was freaking frozen.

"Aren't you the one who, well… put it off track last time you left the island? That's what sent Locke and Sawyer and the rest time traveling. How do you know you won't turn it off track again?"

Ben stopped in mid-appraisal of the wheel and shot him a look Hurley hadn't seen since they were all living in the Dharma barracks the first time, hiding from the freighter people. A little bit of the venomous Ben in that look, Hurley thought, but he wasn't worried and returned the cold scowl with a grin and a shrug as if repeating the question with the gesture.

"Well, Hurley, I've got a little practice at it now, so let's hope I can manage to get it right this time, okay? If all goes well, I'll land in Tunisia at the exit point of the electromagnetic pocket and you head back up the tunnel and make sure the repairs happen. But if not, well, you're right here: Do what you have to and turn the wheel back on track. Just don't turn it so hard you follow me," he muttered. "We don't want our little group of two to have to hold things down until one of us can get back. That wouldn't be pretty if anything goes wrong."

"I'm sure you'll do fine, Ben, sorry," Hurley took a seat on a rock against one of the cave walls. Ben found one of the wrenches from his last trip, and started knocking ice off the wheel. Hurley hoped he hadn't spooked him.

"Make sure to focus on the Flame, Hurley, you and Bernard. If you can get even a little of what's left of the equipment there working again, I may be able to contact you before I head back. If not, it might be awhile before we talk. I'll do my best to work fast."

Ben tossed the wrench aside, put on gloves and stared at the wheel seeming to brace himself.

"Well, here goes… something" Ben said.

"What's the trip to Tunisia like?" Hurley asked.

"It's not … pleasant." Ben looked back at him and shrugged. "You have to hope you land on your back, not on your head and not hard enough to actually break your back. Then after about five seconds it feels like all the hangovers you've ever had in your life got together and paid a return visit to your stomach."

"Whoa, got it, okay," Hurley didn't mean to laugh at his expense, but he did. "I'm sorry I asked, man. Are you worried any of "them" will be there waiting for you in the desert?"

"Widmore's people? Yes, I'm worried they'll be watching with their camera system, but hopefully they're not there 24/7 anymore and I can get on my way. I just hope I find a ride fast," he patted the canteen he was bringing along "There's no way to carry enough water for the alternative, which is a very long walk through the desert. So wish me luck, Hugo, and see you soon… hopefully in this life and not another."

"Yeah, good luck, Ben. You'll be fine, I know it." Ben shot him a quizzical look, but didn't ask what he meant.

Watching him turn the wheel, watching the cave light up and hearing the hum of the island turn into a buzzing roar, Hurley was in awe again and reminded of the odd, dangerous power of this place he had agreed to call home. Then the noise and the glare were gone and so was Ben.

Now Ben stood on the dock a little more than a week later and watched the waves, enjoying the fine mist on his face on a late-March day in Portland. The island never saw these cool, damp clouds that reached for both the water and the sky. In the silence with just the waves and the clouds and the boats bumping against the dock it was a hypnotic and happily stress-free moment.

Eventually, though, he heard the clonk, clonk, clonk sound of feet. He turned and gave a short nod and a small polite smile to the lackey who had come to get him.

"Mr. Grey can see you now, will you follow me?" Ben nodded again and they set off for the low-slung metal building that looked like a hanger but which actually housed the offices of a watercraft company well known to generations of Others.

"Did you have a good trip here, sir?"

"Uneventful, mostly," Ben said.

"Well, I'm sure we can arrange for a new boat for you and not take up too much of your day, I know you never have much time to spare."

"Actually, it's not a boat we need this time," Ben said. "I'm here for a new submarine. And would you make sure Mr. Grey knows before I get in there that we need you to work a little faster than usual? No sense wasting anyone's time."

Ben could see the dollar signs light up in even this simple emissary's eyes at the idea of such a big project falling in their laps, and he hoped again that he could bring everything together. There were networks of off-island contacts to reconnect, a new regime to tell them about… so much politicking. He felt excited, but a little out of practice too.

It was only then that he stopped to wonder if Hurley fully understood that by taking on guardianship of the island he had really also become the head of "The Others". Ben realized it was one more thing he'd need to coach him on, but he couldn't suppress the ironic smile it brought to his face - at least for a moment.


	5. What Kate said on the way to LAX

**What Kate said on the way to LAX**

They were barely on the way to the airport when it started raining. Kate flipped on the windshield wipers and thought, "One out, one in…. what next?"

She was dropping Sawyer off at LAX to catch a flight to Albuquerque to meet his daughter Clementine. The interpersonal negotiations between he and Cassidy had been difficult to this point, and he knew the trip wouldn't be happening at all if Cassidy and Kate hadn't become friends.

Once she dropped him off at departures, Kate had one more job: Pick up Carole Littleton at arrivals. She and Aaron were on a plane right now, on their way back to L.A to reunite with Claire. They would stay with her while everyone adjusted to their new roles and figured out where life would take them next. She wondered how long it would take Aaron to go from thinking of her as mom to seeing her as Auntie Kate, and whether he might instinctively understand Claire was his real mother. Or would it be a much bumpier ride than that? Claire had come a long way since leaving the island. "But," Kate thought, "she still has so far to go…"

For a moment she remembered her life when she was on the run and responsible for no one but herself. She'd had the same thought a few times since they got back to L.A. thirteen weeks ago. It hit her again how much she never ever wanted to be back there again.

"There's something I have to tell you," Sawyer's voice jolted her out of her reverie. "I'm not coming back after this trip. Once I visit Clementine, I'm moving on."

There was a short silence while Kate digested this.

"Sawyer, we agreed we could all use your help here for awhile, until, well, until we all feel relatively safe. And if you don't come back and stay with us…" She tried to think of a tactful way to ask it but couldn't. "What are you going to do for a living?"

There was a small pause while the wipers slapped and the rain fell and neither of them said anything.

"I thought I'd go work with Miles…" Sawyer wasn't done, but Kate cut him off.

"Dammit, Sawyer, what are you thinking? You can't go back to grifting."

He could feel how upset she was, and that kept him from denying it or snapping back at her.

"You know Miles is barely making a living as a PI on his own. He won't be able to take on a second for months, or years maybe. So you're going to, what? Go back to conning people? Really? Aren't you a little past that?"'

The next pause was a longer before Sawyer responded.

"What don't you get about the fact that I'm not cut out to be the supportive best friend, the man of the family, however you want to put it. It's bad enough I've been living in your basement for three months, but now- you and me and Claire and her mom and little Aaron all hanging around your house? I pretty much want to kill myself just thinking about it."

"What about all that growing up you supposedly did these past three years?"

As soon as she said it, Kate was sorry she had. Her words conjured up the ghost of Juliet, which always sent him into a bitter silence. Though he was sitting still she felt him mentally squirming in the passenger seat, his jaw moving silently.

"Why do you need me to come back, anyway?" He finally managed to ask. "You have a home, money, Claire and Aaron… and the worst is over. So what the hell do you need me moping around for?"

"Because I'm pregnant. And something's wrong, like "pregnant women on the island all die" wrong. And by the way, no one is over what we all went through, not even you if you're willing to admit it. I'm still sleeping with a gun under my mattress and Claire jumps halfway through the ceiling every time the phone rings or someone drops something. I need help from someone who understands all that."

The light turned red and they stopped. She had rattled it off so matter-of-factly that she couldn't believe she'd been afraid to say it out loud, even to him.

"Son of a…" Sawyer said.

"Yeah," Kate said.

"…bitch."

"That was pretty much my reaction when I realized it was true. But it's my own fault. I went out of my way to try to get pregnant and damn it if I didn't succeed."

"I thought you two were barely talking," Sawyer's face showed clear confusion. "Why would you do that?"

"Because we were going back to the island. I wanted to get Claire home but I knew I might fail and maybe we'd get stranded on the island again. Women who conceived off the island generally survived and those who conceived on-island all died. And if I was going to spend the rest of my life there… it seemed like the right idea at the time."

"Well, if you got pregnant off the island shouldn't you be in the clear then?"

"No. I didn't count on a couple of things. I didn't know we'd be pulled back to 1977, or that I'd be standing right over the Swan station when the bomb went off. Seems pretty obvious to me that the Incident had to have something to do with all those pregnant women dying suddenly after 1977. Don't you think?"

The light changed but neither of them noticed until the driver behind them beeped. Kate eased on the gas.

"I was around that hatch for days and days, right after I conceived. I didn't even think about it at all at first. I was happy when we got home, and I found out. Then I started having symptoms."

"Like what?"

"Extreme fatigue. Not just normal pregnant-tired, more like I couldn't move sometimes, I was so exhausted. Then shortness of breath, too. I started seeing a doctor and hoped it was all in my head, but she told me my white blood count was way low. And when we tested again it was worse. That's one of the main symptoms. Sorry, Sawyer, to bring her up… but that's what Juliet told Sun and me was the main symptom of all the pregnant women who died there. So I need to find Richard Alpert. I have to ask him about that vaccine Ethan was giving Claire before she had Aaron. It might have been what kept her alive."

"You mean the vaccine she made." Sawyer referred to Juliet with a degree of detachment Kate hadn't heard since they'd gotten home. "I hate to disappoint you, but she'd be the first to tell you they weren't really sure what they were doing or if that vaccine was helping. And even if you find Richard, what odds do you think there are even one single dose of it exists anymore, let alone somewhere you can actually get to it? Do you think there's a branch of 'Island Pharmaceuticals' near the mall?"

"Sawyer, I think we'd both be amazed at what these people have access to. Think about it, how fast Eloise was able to get us on our way home to L.A, and how some of the Others like Richard and Tom were always running errands off-island. And Ben: He told Miles he could get him 3.2 million dollars in no time, and that he had access to a whole network of people."

Sawyer hadn't considered this, and it was dawning on him that their entanglement with that world may not be as over as he'd assumed. Kate could see it all washing over his face.

"I'm guessing," she said, "We're going to find out their network is every bit as big as Widmore Industries and probably way bigger. And considering what I did to Eloise to make her get us home, she's not going to help me now. I think the only hope I have is finding Richard Alpert. And …maybe he knows what happened on the island after we left."

"Is that what this is all really about? Are you imagining-up a life or death crisis so you can find out for sure what happened to the doc?"

It was his turn to be sorry he'd asked as he watched Kate fold microscopically in the driver's seat.

"No, I'm not imagining anything. And I don't need to be told. I know Jack is dead."

"How?"

"I don't know. The same way Rose knew Bernard was alive, I guess. I just know."

"Dammit, Kate, pull over. Find a store where I can get us some coffee and park it, okay?"

"Why?"

"Because I need to ask you one more thing that's really likely to piss you off, and I don't want you still driving when I ask it," he said, "And because I need three minutes to get my head together and figure out what the hell to do next."

The rain stopped as they pulled into the parking lot. Kate turned off the ignition and Sawyer held his hand out for the keys.

"I'm gonna drive when I come back. You've had enough stress lately, as I'm learning." She didn't even fight him taking the keys, which scared him more than anything that had happened to them before.

"Now, I have to ask… you do realize you're not on an uncharted island anymore, right? If your current situation is threatening your life, have you considered changing your current situation?"

He wasn't quite finished the question when she turned an angry glare on him, shaking her head.

"Kate, why? If you can't be sure of making it through this alive without their help and we don't even know how to find them, then why risk it? Who's going to help Claire exit the Crazy Train and take care of Aaron if you die?"

He expected her to get furious with him or break down, and he was surprised when she went entirely calm.

"Sawyer, for years before the crash, I was pretty much on my own. Even when I tried I couldn't connect with anyone, even the man I married. It never mattered how many people were in the room, I was alone. Then suddenly, as awful and crazy as the crash and the island were, I had a life for awhile. Then it was all gone. I lost Jack, I lost you. Claire, God-willing will go home to Australia someday and take Aaron with her…"

She looked him in the eyes and he felt the heart he thought was buried under concrete and steel beams break a little bit more.

"I need this. And based on everything…. I think I have about a week to figure it out before I'm in huge trouble. So are you going to help me find Richard Alpert or not?"

"Of course," he said and opened the car door. "And so ends the question and answer session for this trip to the airport. Close your eyes, take a breather, and when I come back I promise I'll have at least a half-baked genius idea for what to do next."

While Sawyer was in the store, Kate locked the doors, flipped back the passenger's seat and closed her eyes. She immediately went back in her mind to the hours after they'd landed in Nauru. She thought if she just went over it again, she'd come up with some clue as to how and why Richard had disappeared and left them to fend for themselves.

They knew there was a chance there'd be enough security around even on that sleepy island to make a clean break difficult. That's just what they'd found. Kate remembered the landing, Frank taxiing the plane as far from the small customs building as possible. Everyone got ready to bolt down the chain ladder and head for cover. Richard had sensed, or heard others coming first. She remembered him telling them all to run, remembered taking off with Claire toward the tree line while Miles and Sawyer ran the other way.

Their splitting up may have been the reason that only Frank Lapidus was stopped and taken in by security. But where did Richard go? It was the question they'd all asked once they met back up.

Their reunion started when Claire and Kate found a maintenance building with a locker room along the tree line. Kate took a rock to the padlocks, and after some searching they found some locally-appropriate clothing that nearly fit, a little cash, two cell phones: Not enough to get them home, but enough to get a step closer, Kate thought.

Claire was getting panicky, and didn't like Kate's instructions that she go outside alone and track down Miles and Sawyer.

"Claire, you have to do this. If you don't we're going to all start running in circles, and we're never going to all get home together. I'm sure they stayed close by… and if you could hide from the Others and track them around the island for three years then you can do this no sweat. Go find them, and bring them back here."

"Bring them here and what?" Claire asked, "We have no passports, not much money. How are we going to get out of here undetected?"

She poked Kate's shoulder, as Kate stared transfixed at one of the cellphones, a look of stunned surprise on her face.

"I know how to get us home. Daniel Faraday's mother will do it."

"Didn't he die on the island? Didn't his mother actually physically shoot and kill him?" Claire was nearly yelling.

"Yes, but I'm going to use this phone to find her. Eloise Hawking is in L.A. There's a Dharma station at a church there. Jack's mom will know the number, he told her a story that he was going on a trip to do volunteer surgery on a kid and he'd be in the middle of a jungle. He told her Eloise "worked" there, and could get a message to him while he was gone. I guess he hoped… if he never came home Eloise would have the heart to tell his mom why or at least make up a story."

"What makes you think they'll even admit she's there?" Claire asked.

"Because I'm going to tell them I have news about her son. I'll tell her that Daniel survived, that he escaped the island and she never shot him so she should send passports for all of us. You can bet she'll get us home fast."

Claire was looking at Kate with a mixture of admiration and horror, one hand over her mouth. Neither of them spoke for a moment.

"What will she do to us when she finds out you were lying? I'm afraid to even think of it."

"After what she and the Others put us through to save their precious island, I don't care how mad she gets. In fact I can't wait to see her face when I tell her I lied and he's really dead."

And that was it. In less than three days, they were home. It made Kate's head spin how fast help arrived once she got hold of Eloise. Claire had found the guys and they were barely back at the maintenance shed when a man showed up and told them to follow him. Half a mile on foot later, they got in a car that took them to a boat that took them to a cargo ship. On board they were handed cash along with passports with their pictures and strange names that proved perfectly acceptable at customs and security. The men on the ship hadn't even noticed they'd handed over one more passport than needed. Kate guessed it was because they were hired-guns, several steps back from the people who'd contracted to get them all home.

The implications of it all were totally lost on Sawyer at the time. It showed Kate how truly drained he was. If the Others could get to them that fast on a tiny island in the South Pacific, what did that say for their odds of ever really escaping them forever?

No wonder Richard had disappeared, Kate thought. He was a pretty high-level Other all those years. He had bigger fish to fry than them. He probably saw a power vacuum waiting to be filled somewhere, and a way to start a new life somewhere in the operation, whatever is left of it.

The tapping of keys on the window woke Kate up. Sawyer stood there, two cups of coffee in his hands.

"Scoot over," He told her when she rolled down the window. "I need you to drive after all."

"Why?" She took one of the cups from him as he got in and she slid back to the driver's seat.

"It's decaf," He said, and Kate rolled her eyes. "What? Well, I don't know, are you supposed to have caffeine right now? Anyway, drive, I don't want to miss my plane. But I have some calls to make on the way. I'm pretty sure I know how to find Richard…. or at least someone who can help us, if not Dorian Gray himself."

"How?"

"Well, let's assume good triumphed over evil on that wretched rock, at least for the moment. Since we are all alive and breathing, I think that's pretty safe to say. So whoever survived back there… they've got to build the place back up, gird their loins in a 21st Century kind of way, right? Because you know evil isn't giving up just because Smokey died. That means they're going to need to get back and forth from the island."

Kate wasn't sure whether to be relieved to see glimpses of the old Sawyer or concerned about where he was going with this.

"Getting around Ajira-316 style is too labor-intensive, and it's probably not necessary anymore now that Smokey and Jacob and their little game with all those rules are gone," Sawyer went on. "What they need is a new submarine or a new boat or both. But definitely they need a sub at least, 'cause it'll get them around a whole lot faster and less visibly."

"How does that help us, exactly?"

"Because, Kate, tons of people make planes and trains and automobiles but the list of people who make submarines for anyone other than the military is pretty short. I'm going to find the one that's working on a very special order right now, and we'll be there when someone shows up to pick up the keys."


	6. Richard returns the hard way

**Richard returns the hard way**

Richard's eyes flew open before he was fully conscious, and when he really came to all he could see was deep, flat, featureless darkness. There was no sound either, just a silence so complete that he gasped out loud and was relieved to hear his own voice.

The fact that he could gasp took away a little of his terror and told him his worst fears had probably not happened. But all, certainly, had not gone well. He could breathe though, his chest moving up and down easily. He decided to just go with that for a minute, breathing in and out and letting his pounding heart slow down.

Once it did he tried to raise his right hand to his head to feel for cuts or bleeding, but when he couldn't move that arm even a fraction of an inch he got a bad thrill again. His left arm flew up in a panic. In fact his whole left side jumped, reaching instinctively toward the arm he could not move and he realized he had nearly full range of movement on his left. He could lift his head. It also didn't feel like anything was broken or crushed, and all of this good news in a matter of a second was such a relief it brought a sting of tears to his eyes.

He knew he had more reason than ever to be glad he was mortal again. Forever would be a very long time to spend trapped, if that were what he was. He thought he'd better start to try to find out.

There was a lighter in his right hand pants pocket, a tool for lighting torches on the island. He tried to reach around for it, but it was inconveniently buried at the bottom of the pocket, under a compass and half of a Dharma granola bar that was still in its wrapper. Several minutes of struggling to get the left hand into the opposite pocket or to push the lighter up and out onto the floor got him a pulled muscle in his side and a fresh layer of sweat, but no closer to illumination. He realized he'd better think about another approach before he exhausted himself.

He lay there and could smell that the air around him was mostly dry and dank, with the tiniest traces of freshness - outdoor air seeping in. But it wasn't strong enough to constitute a breeze. He knew where he should be, but feared he was yards from there at best—and at worst, who knew where. He was most definitely in an abandoned space, somewhere no one had been in awhile. And from the lack of light, there was more darkness beyond wherever that fresh air was coming in. He tried to smell a hint of anything in the air that might tell him something but came up with only a vague, musty dampness.

He touched the ground to his left, and felt what seemed to be polished stone or smooth flooring, definitely not dirt. He twisted to his right again, and found that side of him was on a grating or drain with long metal bars widely spaced, at least several inches apart. His right arm was hanging straight down through one of the gaps, either fallen or propelled through it on his less-than-graceful arrival. His heart raced again as he realized he couldn't move that arm or hand because he could not feel them, and he wondered suddenly how long he'd been stuck here, how long he had been pinned.

Richard unbuttoned his shirt, and started pulling it off his left shoulder and then shirking it off his left arm bit-by-bit, relieved that his sleeves were rolled up and not buttoned down. Still, getting his left arm loose took several painful minutes, each jolt through his left arm, shoulder and neck telling him that he'd landed hard. That done, he started dragging the dark blue fabric up and behind his head, twisting and pulling to try to get it around and over the top of him.

His left hand banged into something hard and sharp as he swung it around, and he realized the metal grating he was laying on was not in one piece but was broken and twisted to the point of curling in wrong directions: At least the portion to his north-east was that badly damaged. That's when he heard the sighing sound. It was the creaking, hollow sound that a broken, barely balanced metal structure would make just before it collapsed.

Richard tried inching very slowly to his left, and the creaking and sighing turned into a symphony of wobbling, swaying metal. He felt a sickening motion down and to the right as whatever the structure was that was holding half of his body started to fall. From the pain in his right hip and knee joints, he realized he was starting to fall too. In an instant, he exhaled hard and rolled to his left, pulling on the shirt, yelling in fear and praying he wasn't about to collapse into – what?

He twisted so much that he found himself on his stomach, his right arm and its slowly returning circulation making their presence known with a burning that shot from his shoulder through his fingertips. He still couldn't move his right hand, and he lay there hoping that would be temporary. He felt the cold stone on his face and wanted to just take some comfort in the coolness- but then he realized he didn't know what else might crumple around him.

He rolled left and onto his back again, and began to sit up. Almost immediately, his head hit something - solid metal from the sound it made, with a dull clonk so loud he guessed he'd have a nasty bruise on the forehead to show for it. He fell back, swearing out loudly in several languages from pain and complete frustration, his left hand over his throbbing forehead.

At least he had a general idea where he was now. He expected he was in a crawl space, part of a ventilation system that snaked under the floors and around the outer walls of the Dharma hatches on the island. There were ten hatches, several of which the 815'ers had found in their time there: The Flame, the Pearl, the Orchid… and in the middle of the nine sat one hatch the 815'ers never did find, the one represented by a big question mark at dead center of the iridescent blast door map John Locke had spotted three years earlier. That's where Richard suspected he was now, actually hoped he was - since that hatch represented by the question mark is what he had been aiming for.

It dawned on him lying there that it was some kind of a small miracle that John Locke hadn't thought to go charging straight toward that symbol, the one thing that clearly sat the very center of Radzinsky's map with lines connecting it to every other station. Locke had seen enough of the blast door map to draw it from memory, and yet he never, apparently, set out to find the question mark. Thank God for small favors, Richard thought.

If he was in the crawl space, then there should be several places at which the metal floor above his head would be interrupted by more bars above him, ventilation points where, if he was lucky, he could break through and up into the station if they weren't bolted down hard, and if the portion he was resting on wasn't so broken that it fell into nothingness.

The crawl spaces, he knew, sat just a couple of feet below the floor level of each hatch and the metal grating that extended beyond them and around the outside of the hatch went all the way up to the island above and then down 60 feet or more beneath the hatch floors. It allowed for drainage, and forced ventilation when needed. But this one, it felt to him, was pretty much blown apart. Had the explosion during the incident done it? The hatches closer to the Swan where known to have suffered some damage in the Incident, and that, in part, led to their disrepair, but nothing like this kind of brokenness had been found. If the blast had done this much, what would he find inside if he could get there?

But not getting there wasn't an option. If he fell into the gap created by the crumpled metal, who knew what he might fall on? And even if he survived that, Richard expected he'd still never get out, at least not alone. There was next to no chance anyone else was going to enter the Weather Vane anytime soon.

He lay there for one more minute and smelled the air again, trying to gauge where the hint of freshness was coming from. To his south, he decided, and started digging in his heels a couple of feet ahead, pulling himself yard by yard through the crawl space and making sure to feel first if the ground below him felt firm before he inched forward.

He pounded on the first grate he saw above his head with the heel of his left hand, but it was bolted down tight. He kept moving. It was the same with the second one he dragged himself to twenty minutes later. But then came the third, and when he reached up and banged and pushed on the bars he heard a squeaking that signaled a weakness in the connection of grate to flooring that made him cry out with relief. Sixteen sharp pushes upward, and it gave way.

Richard dragged himself up the couple of feet into what he was now very sure was the Weather Vane station, though he still could not see it or exactly what conditions he might be lifting himself into. For a few minutes he stayed there on the floor, somewhere between consciousness and a strange, jumpy, uneasy dream in which he was sitting in his first home having dinner with Isabella. They had just argued about something, but he couldn't remember what.

Then he was awake again and she was gone. He pulled himself up to sitting, and started pushing the contents of his pocket out onto the floor. His right arm was picking and burning in a way that gave him hope for its future, but it wasn't much use to him yet, and it was a slow process. The shirt he'd used as a sling to pull his arm from the vent got in his way, and he leaned far to his left until the fabric fell and he could slide it back on with a grimace. He broke out in exhausted laughter when he realized he'd unconsciously taken the time to button it up and fix the sleeves with his good left hand, laughing at the wasted investment of time and energy when he was still sitting in the dark.

He felt around on the floor, and his fingers found the lighter. Then the Dharma station was dimly illuminated for him – the huge, circular space with a ceiling fifteen feet high in the air, a bank of computers and a work area that stretched most of the way around, a kitchen, bathroom and bunk space to his left and his right, not terribly different from the setup of the Swan but with many more computers, machines that were visibly much more modern than anything in any of the other hatches. It looked good, no visible signs of damage inside.

He stood and found that the room swam and went a little grey on him when he did. He made it to the fuse boxes and threw on the power to the hatch, then went to the kitchen sink and threw on the cold tap. It took nearly three minutes before the water ran clear, and he drank for what felt like minutes more before heading for the bunks.

He wondered as he fell asleep what he'd find when he woke up and left the hatch. He prayed he hadn't just made the worst possible mess of everything. If he hadn't, then a few hours of sleep wouldn't matter. If he had, then nothing much, he knew, would really help.


	7. Desmond and the new recruits

Hurley knew he had no way of foreseeing if he'd run the island for 30 days or 3,000 years, but he felt it'd be good to think optimistically and get to really know the place. So every day he made time to walk a new stretch of it, learning more about every hill and beach.

It was also a good excuse for a daily break from all the work he and Bernard and Rose were doing at the barracks and at the Flame. They were making progress, but Rose and Bernard were used to their alone time and Hurley felt less like their leader and more like a third wheel some days.

It also helped that he'd already seen quite a bit of the island already, from the 815'ers beach to the Orchid, to the Black Rock and New Otherton – but there was still a lot to cover. Once they had new recruits in place, he thought, he'd take longer treks – but for now he stuck with walking about an hour out in a new direction, and then the hour back.

On his tours, he felt and sometimes even saw flashes of things long gone, bits of island history revealed to him. He wasn't sure how it worked or if he even wanted to know how it worked, but the glimpses never failed to amaze. One day, he stopped dead in his tracks when he found himself surrounded by huge tan tents and people busy setting up camp. The mirage lasted well over a minute, and it became clear they couldn't see him when a jeep drove right 'through' him. Then, in an instant, they were gone. He knew he must have been standing in the spot where the US Army had set up shop with the Jughead bomb in 1954. Another day, he heard and smelled signs of an encampment he never could see—smelled fires burning, heard wood being chopped. He had nothing to relate that to, and never did understand that he was in the valley where the first "Others" had lived, the Greeks who crashed there and who brought Jacob and his brother into the world.

So Hurley was a little confused when, on today's walk, he saw a dot out on the sea that kept coming closer. Was it another mirage, or for real? He waited patiently, and saw it come closer and closer. It revealed itself to be a modern, ocean-going vessel, and then to be Penny's boat, The Searcher.

Hurley let out a whoop of joy and pulled a two-way out of his backpack.

"Bernard, come in Bernard," He heard the squelch of a return call.

"Yeah, Hurley, what's up? I'm pretty close to testing our re-wiring job down here."

Bernard was at the Flame, seeing if they might get some piece of it working again so they could communicate with the outside world.

"Excellent, man, sorry to interrupt but it's important. Aragorn is back!"

"Who?" Bernard sounded perplexed and annoyed at being interrupted.

"It's the return of the king, dude!" Hurley started walking toward the Pala Ferry landing, where it appeared the Searcher was headed.

"Um, Hurley," Bernard started, then a pause. "I know we discussed putting together a set of code names for walkie talk, just in case… but you haven't actually given me a list yet, so…. in plain English, please?"

"Desmond is back!" Hurley answered, "And I'm thinking that means Penny is with him. We've got company on the way!"

"That's great news, Hurley, thanks. Meet you at the barracks in about an hour."

Hurley threw the walkie back into his pack and nearly ran for the ferry landing, even though he knew the boat was still well out at sea. It had only been 12 days since Ben had left for Portland, but they'd been long days of waiting and working and making slow progress. He was excited to welcome Desmond back, and sensed this day would be a turning point for them all.

Hurley beat the boat to the landing by 20 minutes, and watched it coming in. The Searcher was so big it actually couldn't pull all the way up to the dock, and he heard the engines cut out as the coasted to a stop. A few minutes later, he saw people gather at the side, dropping ladders and two zodiac rafts into the water.

Five minutes more, and they were walking toward him – seven people in all. Desmond was in the lead, walking with his recognizable loose and easy stride, his arms swinging and a broad smile on his face. Hurley thought he looked happier than he'd ever seen him look before. He'd let his hair grow long again, and had a short, clipped beard going.

Penny was close behind, pulling little Charlie along. Charlie was more interested in inspecting the dock and maybe jumping off for a swim than he was in anything else, and she had to coax him along step by step.

"Desmond, man, good to see you," They exchanged a big handshake and half an awkward man-hug. "Thanks for coming back. It's been three months, I wasn't sure you would … especially with a smile on your face."

"Aye, well…" Desmond looked back toward the rest making their way up the dock. "I wasn't for it at first, but it Penny changed my mind. She pointed out some things I hadn't thought of, about who might still be after us even though her father is dead and gone. But…" he slapped Hurley on the back. "There's time later to talk later about the whys and how's, and about what's next, right?"

"Right," Hurley nodded.

"Hello, Hurley," Penny had given up on getting Charlie to the end of the dock on his own two feet, and had scooped him up onto her shoulder. She reached in to kiss Hurley on the cheek.

"I hear you're in charge of the island now. If this were England, you'd have a title of some sort. What shall we call you?"

"Oh, no, it's way too soon for me to have a big head about my job," Hurley laughed. "I'm still trying to figure out what the hell is going on. Who is this?" He asked rhetorically, and took their son who was squirming out of Penny's arms and reaching for him, apparently fascinated by his curly hair, since the first thing he did was give it a pull.

"This is our boy," Desmond said, "I forgot you haven't met him yet, Hurley. We named him Charlie."

Hurley looked at them and back to their son and they could see he was touched. He didn't say anything for a second, just looked at Charlie, who wanted down, now, to run around the beach.

"Ah, that's great, that's excellent," Hurley said. "Charlie will love that."

The rest of the group from the boat had been busy securing the rafts, but they were walking up now, and it snapped Hurley out of his reverie.

"The guys are some of my crew members," Penny did the introductions. "They've worked for me for years, and now they work for you too." She pointed to the first two of the four people behind her. "Meet Mathias and Henrick, they ran my tracking station in a place far less hospitable than this, weather-wise. They're thrilled to be here." The round of handshakes started, and Hurley saw the rest approaching.

"And this is Pavel," Penny motioned toward the tall, thin, Russian with a serious head of black hair and a serious expression to match, who waved to Hurley and nodded slightly. "He's a whiz with carpentry and electrical work. We brought equipment, he'll have the whole of Dharmaville fixed before you can blink."

"Oh, thank God," Hurley said, and they all laughed at the depth of the relief in his voice. "It probably would have taken years if we had to do it ourselves."

In his excitement at this news he didn't notice the last of the new arrivals approaching. She had lingered on her walk up the dock, drinking in the sights and smells of the island and it wasn't until now that Hurley noticed her and the blissful smile on her face.

"And here's your first official recruit, Hurley, to stay for good if that's agreeable." Desmond said with some pride, "We brought you a doctor for the island."

She stepped up to shake Hurley's hand and he noticed she was a few years north of Penny and Desmond, older than he'd thought at first glance but with bright, penetrating eyes and an easy smile. She was petite, with long, wavy sandy blonde hair and a confident air. While the others acted like new arrivals, she seemed very much at home.

"Hi," she said, and as their hands touched Hurley got another sudden history lesson from the island, a vision as clear as the dock in front of him of two children sitting on a swing set, holding carved wooden dolls. The girl had sandy blonde hair and the boy wore large, round glasses and a woebegone expression Hurley recognized immediately.

"I'm Annie. It's nice to meet you, Hurley."

"Hi, Annie," Hurley wondered if he'd managed to hide his shock, and from the lack of reaction around him he guessed maybe he was getting better at that. "Nice to meet you, too." He repressed the urge to say 'Welcome back'.

"It's a bit of a long story," Desmond said, "How we met her and ended up bringing her along. Mind if we tell it over lunch?"

"Of course," Hurley started them off toward Dharmaville. "The food drops have been coming in just as often as ever, and with so few of us here now, it's really starting to pile up. Let's go make a dent in it, and open some of those bottles of Dharma beer and Merlot to celebrate."

They chatted on as they walked, but Hurley was thinking how much he wished the Flame were fixed so he could try to get in touch with Ben. He really wanted to tell him about the reunion that he was facing, or had to look forward to, when he got home. Hurley wondered which it'd be in his eyes, but from his own instant desire to warn him, he had a feeling he knew which it was.


	8. Difficult conversations

"I don't understand why you need to leave us in your home and take off so suddenly."

Carole Littleton started picking up the breakfast dishes. She and Kate were sitting in Kate's kitchen. Claire and Aaron were there minutes before, but were now headed for the pool. Claire found the water calmed her nerves, and since they'd gotten back to California she often swam laps until she exhausted herself. But with Aaron here now she stuck to the shallow end, teaching him to float and to open his eyes underwater. Aaron, they all felt, sensed Claire was his in some way but he still gravitated toward Kate. Each time that happened it clearly left Claire a tiny bit deflated even though it had only been a couple of days.

"I promise, I'm not just taking off," Kate stayed at the table, fiddling with a half empty cup of tea. "There's something I have to go deal with or else I won't be of any use to Claire or any of you much longer. Please don't make me explain," she said when she saw the confused look Carole shot her.

"Don't make you explain? I think I've been pretty patient on that front."

Kate knew she was right. Carole had brought Aaron back to California immediately when she called her in Australia. The reunion between mother and daughter was heart-wrenching to watch, especially when Kate thought about how close it had come to never happening. She'd only shared the barest details about how she'd brought Claire back and why she'd waited weeks to let her know they were safe.

"I'm taking it slow to protect us all," Kate said. "And I'm not leaving you alone: James will be back today, before I leave, and he'll stay. But I'm asking you to be patient, and not expect us to spill everything in five minutes flat. It's… very complicated."

"I'm sorry, but I'm not entirely sure why we should stick to your time table," Carole sat back down and looked Kate straight in the eyes. "So tell me why I shouldn't just take my daughter and grandson home today?"

Kate looked at her and shook her head. She was on the verge of losing control of the situation and debated how much to reveal to keep it.

"Because as much as you want to, you can never just go home again. You have to lie. We have to arrange new names and identities for you."

"Are you out of your mind? Why in the world would I …"

"Why?" Kate cut her off. "Because where we just came from, it's a place where miracles happen. It's a place with the power to heal someone who's sick, even save a life or decide someone is too evil to live anymore. And because it's so powerful, the people who know about it have been viciously fighting for control of it for … a very long time."

Kate had almost said the words 'thousands of years' but realized that might be enough to push Claire's mom past the point of rational discussion. She was sharing so much more than she wanted to, but the thought of an unstable Claire going God knows where and maybe sharing a little too much about her experiences with God knows who terrified her.

"When we left, all I could think about was being free of it. But now I know I need the people we left behind, or I may not live to see next week." She saw Carole's shocked face and kept going. "I've accepted that whatever happens the rest of my life I'm locked into this chess game we were dragged into, because I have to help and protect my friends on the island and hope they'll do the same for me. I really think someday you and Claire and Aaron can move on and just live your lives…. but not yet. If you take it too fast I can promise you it won't end well. That's not a threat, that's just experience speaking."

She could tell that Carole hadn't had nearly enough time to process what she'd said, let alone believe it. Whatever she decided to do would be based on how much she trusted that Kate's heart was in the right place.

"Okay," Carole nodded. "I'll stay, and I'll talk with James while you're gone. I just hope the two of us can convince Claire to do the same."

"What do you mean?"

"She isn't saying it in front of you," Carole confided. "But from nearly the moment I got here, she's been telling me we need to find someone named Richard Alpert, that he can help us locate a man she says was her friend on the island. She tells me he's the only one who can really help her, not you or Sawyer. I asked her why she couldn't just tell you," Carole said when she saw Kate's stricken expression. "She said you think this friend of hers is dead, but she doesn't believe it."

Kate literally felt sick. She knew without any doubt that the thing that had marched around in John Locke's body and nearly sank the island was, for sure, dead and gone. But she also realized for the first time how far Claire had not come in three months and what a mess she was leaving behind for Sawyer to manage. She hoped he was up for the job, or she feared for Claire and Aaron's lives.

At the same time that Kate was packing a bag and headed for the airport, Hurley and his growing community were pulling together a barbeque on a little beach about a tenth of a mile from the Dharma barracks. They'd voted on it at lunch, and decided to stretch the afternoon's festivities into the evening and take tomorrow off entirely. There was so much to be done, but there had also been a fair amount of work and worry since Hurley had taken over and these weren't words he wanted to be signatures of his time as leader.

Bernard and Annie were leading Penny's team, moving tables and supplies down to the beach, starting a fire and setting up racks to roast chicken and hamburgers on. Penny and Rose were sitting a few yards away, talking and watching Charlie build a sand castle which mostly consisted of him running up and down the beach to get buckets full of water to pour in the moat they'd dug. A few yards behind them and to their left, Hurley and Desmond were catching up.

"Penny was determined we were going to find our way back here without having to look for help from the Lamp Post station," Desmond was explaining why it had taken them so long to return. "Between her on-board crew and her tracking station, we did it. I think we've figured out the trick to knowing where it'll be at any given point. We can come and go as we like now."

"That's great, Desmond, especially if you're going to be our recruiters."

Hurley was so grateful that they'd decided to return, but a little bit bummed their new role would keep them away as much as they were around. Desmond and Penny, it was decided, would use the Searcher and the Elizabeth to ferry the island team members around but more importantly to seek out and bring back people with key skill sets needed on the island. They weren't looking for large numbers of recruits, and that was a good thing since they mostly needed smart, committed people willing to leave the rest of their lives behind - and that, they knew, would be the challenge.

Hurley was just going to ask Desmond how they'd figured out something it'd taken the Dharma Initiative years to crack, when something caught his eye. Someone who was not part of their little party was walking toward them from the tree line to their left. Several of Penny's crew saw him as soon as Hurley did, and were headed that way in a flash armed with shotguns. Hurley stood up and yelled for them to stop.

"It's okay, it's okay, we know him," Hurley walked toward them, and they pointed the guns down. "It's Richard, he's okay."

Richard Alpert stopped a few yards from Hurley. He was wearing dark pants and a deep blue t-shirt with an insignia Hurley didn't recognize: A Dharma logo with a weather vane in the center. His right arm was in a makeshift sling fashioned out of his old shirt. He looked worn out, worried or both but didn't say anything. He just stood there looking at Hurley and nodding sharply to the others as if asking him to dismiss them for a moment.

"Can you give us a second?" Hurley asked, and the others started walking back. Hurley waited until they were out of earshot.

"Dude, you look rough. I don't recognize this Dharma logo, and I spent some time in the DI. He pointed to the logo on Richard's chest. "What is it?"

"It's the logo for the Weather Vane station," Richard said, as if that explained it and he said nothing more.

"I expected to see you again someday, Richard, but not so soon. I'm afraid to ask what's going on."

"Well, that's okay, Hurley, I'm a little afraid to tell you – at least as much as I can tell you right now. But I have to, because after we left I made a split second decision and the consequences of it could start coming back to both help us and haunt us soon."

"How soon?" Hurley asked in a matter of fact, almost nonchalant way and Richard threw him a quizzical look. "Think we have an hour or two to spare before any hell breaks loose?"

"Well, I couldn't give you the exact degree of probability," Richard said, "But yes, I think so."

"Then come sit. Visit with everyone, have something to eat and then we'll let them party and we'll go talk. You look like you haven't eaten since I saw you last," Hurley said as he started walking back toward the campfire.

"Actually, Hurley, I haven't." Hurley stopped suddenly but didn't turn around.

"Richard, how long has it been for you since you left the island?"

"About 18 hours, maybe a little more. How long has it been for you since we left?"

"About three months." Hurley turned, and Richard saw a look of disgust and frustration on his face at having to deal with this news. "Oh no… crap. This is not good. What did you do? Are you time traveling somehow?"

"No," Richard looked at the ground for a second and back up at him. "I'm sorry, Hurley, but I'm afraid it's a little more complicated than that."


	9. Richard and Hurley play poker

Richard and Hurley left the rest of the island group behind, celebrating on a beach and made the short walk together back to the Dharma barracks. They didn't have much to say at first. Hurley was thinking they needed a new name for the camp so they could stop referring to it as the Dharma barracks as if it wasn't where they lived now. He could hear laughter and smell the campfire behind them, and realized he wished it were someone else's job to find out what the hell Richard was up to and why he was back.

"I didn't want to ask you in front of the rest, but are you officially in charge now?" Richard adjusted the sling on his right arm as he asked the question, and Hurley wondered how he'd been hurt.

"If you mean did we do the official hand-off ceremony, then yeah. Jack said the magic words and I drank some Island water and that was it. Then he went and fixed the Heart of the Island before he died."

"And Ben, where is he?"

"Off-island. We had to take a chance on using the Orchid station to get him there. We need a sub, and to be in touch with some people who keep this all going financially. Plus, he's picking up my folks for me. I can't decide which job is going to be harder for him: Getting a sub ordered, built, and paid for or getting my mom and dad on it."

Richard looked at him in surprise, but didn't say anything back, and they walked silently again for a few minutes.

"You were second in command of the island for how long?" Hurley asked after awhile.

"Really want to know?" Richard looked over at him and back to the path ahead.

"It was just over 137 years."

"So…. Jacob made you "Forever Forty" and you stayed there until he died? That's pretty awesome. But why didn't you tell him you wanted to go back to being, say, 28 again and stick there?"

It took Hurley a second to realize he was walking alone now; Richard had stopped dead in his tracks with a look of almost complete surprise on his face.

"You know, I never thought about it," he said. "But I'd just been through hell, I was happy to be alive at all. My emotions were all over the place."

"You sure seem to have learned to rein 'em in since then," Hurley said. "You're mister calm, cool and mysterious to us… well, to the group of us who crashed here together. Do I need to learn to be all Super-Zen to be in charge?" They started walking again, and Hurley could see Richard was suppressing a bit of a smile.

"Maybe, Hurley, maybe not. I can't tell you. We were all deadly serious about how we ran things and look how it turned out: Evil nearly won, it came very close. "

They were back at the barracks, and Hurley headed for the picnic table near the gazebo.

"But there is some advice I need to give you, and a lot I need to ask of you even though you don't really know me yet," Richard said.

They sat at opposite sides of the table. The moon was high in the sky and with no campfire and no electric lights the cabins had a chill, silvery glow to them. Hurley got the feeling this would be a conversation he'd remember for a long time to come, and he felt goose bumps running from the top of his scalp to his shoulders.

"Okay, Richard, why are you back? What do you want?"

"I want you to give me money, supplies…. promise you'll make sure no one who saw me tonight will tell anyone else I was here. And I want you to be satisfied with the little bit I can tell you right now about why."

"Oh, is that all?" Hurley started to wave his hand but then slapped it down hard on the table. "No! Not acceptable. But let's start over again. Just tell me first why you're back so soon."

Richard sat in silence for a moment with his closed left hand over his mouth, weighing what to say.

"When we left, I planned to move on and make this place not my problem anymore. I have contacts off-island, I could have made it on my own. But while we were flying and talking about where to land, I found out Jack was severely wounded, and probably wouldn't survive, that Ben had stayed with you both. And Hurley, the first thing I'm here to tell you is not to trust Ben entirely no matter how much you may want his help."

"Oh, isn't that a little obvious? 'Don't trust evil Ben.' Well, he's _my_ second in command now, and I believe he's really helping me. And what are you saying, that if Jack hadn't died you would have just left him to it, but you felt the need to come back just because it's me who's in charge?"

Richard let Hurley go, and waited until he was finished to say anything at all.

"Don't be insulted, I'm not questioning your abilities. Look at it from my point of view: Two of you counter-balancing Ben, with Jack's natural tendency to question everything, that's one thing. But you on your own, Hurley, with no one else around to support you? Honestly, I decided I had no way of knowing if he had even let you live after Jack died. I had to assume the worst, and that the island's fate might be entirely in Ben's hands. So I set it off…. before he could."

"Set what off?" Hurley asked and Richard just shook his head and looked away. Hurley figured this is where things could get difficult. "Richard…. you set what off?"

"Did anything strange happen, the night we all left?" Richard answered the question with a question.

"You mean the earth-shattering bang we all heard just after we buried Jack? And the blinding white light that circled around the island five times?" Yeah, that all happened," Hurley snapped.

"Five times?" Richard smiled a little, and looked relieved. "I'm just glad to not hear double digits." He looked at Hurley and saw his frustration turning to something that looked like real anger, but he went on.

"Part of the reason I told you not to trust Ben is that we've all been lying to you as long as you've been here. What did Ben tell your people about why the purge happened, why we were ordered to kill all the Dharma team in 1992?"

"He said it was because they kept breaking the treaty and going into places they agreed to stay out of."

"That's a lie." Richard said. "What did he tell you about the experiments they were doing?"

"That they were pointless: touchy-feely psychological experiments and transporting polar bears to the desert," Hurley said.

"That's a lie, too." Richard looked him in the eyes. " The Dharma scientists were on a mission to find out when the world would end and to stop human beings from self-destructing. Their experiments were all about hedging against fate. They were playing with time and space to buy the planet a life-insurance policy and we aren't just talking time-travelling bunnies. They were using our island to do it, and in the end, we had to stop them before they used …it."

"You mean this Weather Vane station you mentioned? I guess it does more than help forecast the weather?"

"Yes," was all Richard said back.

"And now you _have _used it…. to give the island more chances. You created …loopholes?"

"That's one way to put it," Richard nodded.

There was a long pause while the two just looked at each other. Hurley knew Richard had just told him most everything he was willing to for now. He was not going to find out in this sitting what these loopholes consisted of or how Richard was traveling among them. And there were at least a dozen other questions he still really wanted answers to.

"Richard, why shouldn't I have you locked in one of the hatches and toss two meals a day down to you until you tell me everything or die of old age?"

"Because I need to go back to where the Ajira flight landed, and make sure the others all got away cleanly," Richard said calmly. "And if they didn't, I need to fix that so people don't start asking questions. Then I have to make sure that the doors I opened to protect the island … well, that they stay open enough so we can use them but not so much that they kill us all. And there are two things you need to do, too," Richard was on such a roll, Hurley forgot he was the one with the upper hand and just listened. "You need to get Walt back here a.s.a.p…"

"I'm going to bring him back ... but not yet," Hurley said, "I want to wait until things are a little more organized here."

"Sorry, you don't have time to wait," Richard said. "I need his help to manage this. I'll explain why next time, I promise. And last – you need to shut down the Dharma food drops from Guam, but keep the facility. I need it for a go-between station." 

"What are we supposed to do for food?" Hurley asked.

"Get in touch with Eloise. Have her set up another warehouse and make the drops from somewhere else- there are plenty of places in the Pacific Rim that'll work and she has the facilities and the people to do it. Just shut the old place down as soon as you can."

In the end, Richard won that whole hand of poker Hurley thought later. But that was because he was holding every card, really. They walked to Ben's old house, where Hurley opened the safe and gave Richard insane amounts of cash, credit cards, letters of transit… everything he would need in the wider world to continue on his mission. Then he took him to a bungalow where he could rest and let the island heal his arm a bit more before he left.

"I'll probably be gone before you're all awake tomorrow," Richard said. "Please, two things: First, write down these names…" He brought Hurley a pen and paper from the desk in the living room of the cabin. "Max Tegmark, Hugh Everett, David Hilburt."

Hurley did as he was told, but then gave Richard a huge shrug, clearly asking for more. Richard rolled his eyes slightly and nodded.

"Google them, Hurley, as soon as you have the Flame back up and running. They're scientists who either helped predict the Weather Vane or build it. One of them interned here in the '80s, early in his career in theoretical physics. If you read up on them our next conversation will be a little less of a shock to your nervous system."

Hurley looked skeptical, but tore the sheet of paper off and put it on the desk under a paperweight.

"Give me a month. If you haven't seen me by then…" Richard looked at the sling on his arm. "Assume I couldn't get back, and tell Ben what we've discussed. But don't tell him about this conversation before then. And… one more question: Did Ben tell you he didn't know what that bang and the light were all about?"

Hurley just nodded.

"That was a lie, too. He knows. And if he had been the one to decide it was time to set it off, he'd be in control of it. But he's not. Remember, Hurley, I am."

For those interested: Links  
>a href=<span>.<span>.edu/a

a href=/2008/jul/16-is-the-universe-actually-made-ofmath/article_view?b_start%3Aint=0&-CIs the Universe Made of Math?/a

a href=.org/wiki/David_HilbertDavid Hilbert/a

a href=.org/wiki/Many-worlds_interpretationMany Worlds Interpretation/a


	10. Race to the Lamp Post

Kate's cellphone rang as she was buckling her seat belt and she nearly missed the call while digging into her purse. She held the phone up and saw Sawyer's number.

"Where are you? How long until you land in L.A.?"

"Well, hello and how are you doing as well, sweetheart?" The sarcasm dripped off Sawyer's voice like honey-vinaigrette but she smiled. She could hear he was happy. His weekend trip to see Cassidy and meet Clementine must have gone well, better than he had hoped.

"Sorry, James, but you're badly needed back here and I've gotta go or I'm gonna miss my flight to Portland."

"I'm just getting off the plane, I'm here," His voice went very business-like, hearing the stress in hers."But don't come to the airport, we've got a change in plans."

Kate had put the phone on hands-free and was backing out of the garage but hit the brakes and put her head on the wheel. She'd been feeling more waves of exhaustion, and stronger ones every day and she knew instinctively that if she didn't find the answer to her dilemma soon, she was in big trouble. It might be nearly too late already.

"What change in plans?" She raised her head long enough to ask.

"The sub was built in Portland, but it's floating down the coast right now. It's being taken to Long Beach to be delivered…"

"To Richard?" Kate asked hopefully.

"I don't think so. I got a description from them of the person in charge of getting it made and paid for, and I'm pretty sure it's our favorite Other Ben. He and a crew from the manufacturing company are headed back to the island today."

"Ben? How did he get here, why isn't he with Hurley?"

"I don't know but we'll get that out of him, if we get to him soon. He's headed for the Lamp Post station. He needs coordinates for the island from Eloise and then they're out of here."

Kate hit the gas in a hurry."I'm on my way there."

"I'll meet you as soon as I can…" Sawyer started to say but she cut him off.

"No, I need you to go straight to my house and talk with Carole…" She stopped in mid-sentence."No, never mind. It's better if I tell you first hand, and I'd feel better having you around to back me up dealing with Ben right now."

"Roger that, gotta go, I'm at the cab stand."

They both hung up without a goodbye, and Kate thought at least they'd have one at the church. She had learned not to take them for gran

It took nearly an hour to make the drive across town to the site of the Lamp Post, but once she got there Kate just sat in her parked car dreading a reunion with Eloise. She remembered the mix of expressions on her face last time they'd met: Deep pain that Daniel wasn't really among the Ajira-316 survivors, and a grudging respect at how Kate had sold the flat-out lie and used it to convince Eloise to get herself and her friends home

Kate had lit into her that day with a fury, telling Eloise it was her fault Jack was dead and asking how any mother in her right mind would have sent Daniel back knowing he'd die too, and at her own hands. Eloise had let her spew, and didn't say a word until Kate ran out of them.

"I wish for you, dear, that you never have to make the choices I've been compelled to make. But if you are forced to… find me then and we'll talk," was all Eloise had said.

The parking lot was empty now except for a couple of church vans and a car. Kate wondered how she'd get in or find out for sure if Eloise was even there, when they both arrived—Ben driving an SUV, followed almost immediately by Sawyer's cab. What timing, Kate thought, and was relieved

Ben got out of his vehicle and walked toward Kate, totally disregarding Sawyer and gazing at her with some surprise and, she could see, a small measure of alarm. She realized he could see she wasn't her most vibrant, healthy self. Kate glared at him out of reflex as much as anything.

"Hello, Kate. I'll skip the pleasantries I can see they'd be wasted."

"Sorry, Ben. It's going to take some time … some serious time for me to be glad to see you."

"Thank you for your honesty."

"Okay, then, return the favor and tell me honestly, is Hurley okay? Why are you here and not with him?"

"Hurley is fine," Ben said patiently as Sawyer joined them and threw Ben a look that said it had better be true."In fact, part of the reason I'm here is to pick up the sub and mend some of our off-island fences and part is to bring these two fine people back to the island with me." He motioned to the SUV and they saw that Hugo's parents were sitting it the back seat, waving like crazy and smiling. Kate couldn't have looked more shocked. Ben shrugged

"Hurley wants to keep both of his worlds intact. Don't worry, they've been properly warned, they know what they're getting into.

Ben started to walk toward the church and Kate and Sawyer followed him.

"So tell me, why are you two here? What can I do for you?" Ben asked it casually, like he'd be glad to help if he could but they were not the first things on his agenda.

Kate stepped in front of him and stopped him in mid-gait.

"I need you to find Richard Alpert. Now."

"Why do you need Richard?"

"Because I'm pregnant, and I spent too much time near the Swan hatch right after the incident. I'm sick – and I think if I don't get some of the vaccine that Claire got on the island… I'm dead.

Her voice caught, and Ben said nothing for a second but nodded with a frown in respect of her fears.

"I'm sorry, Kate, but I don't know where Richard is. I do know he can't help you. That serum, what there was of it and whatever good it actually did, it's gone. There's none on the island, there's none anywhere. But don't despair." He ducked his head to meet Kate's downturned eyes."Let's go to the Lamp Post, and see if Hurley and Bernard have gotten in touch via the Flame. We'll want to ask Hurley, if possible, but I'm pretty sure I know the answer to your problem."

"And what's that?" Sawyer snapped.

Ben turned to look at him."We need to get her back to the island.

Kate's expression showed how unwelcome the news was, and somehow so unexpected and not surprising at the same time. Sawyer looked furiously skeptical.

"I thought pregnant women only died on the island, and you want to take her back there?"

"I think the island reset itself, or rather what Desmond and Jack did reset it. It's just a hunch, based on how the place has felt in the three months since then but I really think the impact of the Incident and the electromagnetic residue from when the Swan hatch blew are gone entirely. So, it can only heal now – if it wants to. If Kate goes back and the island still wants her to live… she will."

Kate's heart rose and sank at the same time. She rolled her eyes and shook her head, realizing Ben was very likely right, and that once again it was her own damn fault her back was against a wall. So she didn't really have a choice, she had to go. If it turned out that the island had no use for her anymore, she'd be dead soon either way. And if it did still need her, then it was her only hope.

Kate was spared from having to see Eloise that day. She stayed in Ben's SUV and talked with the Reyes's while Sawyer and Ben went inside.

"Do you really know what you're getting into?" She asked them after awhile, twisting around from the front seat to face them. She couldn't help but smile despite how horrible she felt, Hurley's parents always made her smile.

"No, Ben was very thorough about describing it," David Reyes nodded."We're good, we're all in.

"We're just so happy you're coming, too," Carmen patted Kate's arm."A familiar face helps so much. Now it feels more like an adventure, and less like a voluntary kidnapping."

They were interrupted as Ben opened the driver's side door. Kate could see Sawyer standing waiting for her a few steps away.

"Kate, go say your goodbyes but make it quick" Ben said."Eloise just got in touch with the Flame a few hours ago, they've got the web and Skype going. Hurley said to get you there as fast as possible. As in now."

Kate realized from his tone that whatever Hurley had told him about her situation had been enough to rattle Ben, who had no reason, really, to worry or care about her fate. She knew he was worried for her purely on behalf of Hurley. Ben looked up and was taken aback by the fear on Kate's face. He started again, in a softer tone.

"You don't have to stay there forever. In fact, he said to assure you that he knows you'll come home again. 'No worries' in his words. But you have to be on the island immediately and stay until your son is born."

Kate gasped at the word son, but didn't say a word in reply. She half stumbled out of the car and walked over to Sawyer, barely feeling the ground beneath her feet. She saw his mutely miserable expression that seemed to be pleading with her not to ask him what Hurley had said.

"Try to keep them safe," He knew she was talking about Claire and Aaron and the alarming evidence that Claire was more out of touch with reality than they'd understood. He nodded."You gonna go crazy just the four of you in that house for a few months?" she asked.

He shook his head and a hint of a rueful smile crossed his lips but didn't really make it to his eyes."I'll keep busy enough – I just picked up some work." She looked confused."I'm Hurley's new head of off-island security, he wants me to learn how to run defense for him against the Widmore Nation and whatever's left of the Dharma and Hanso people. Eloise is sending someone by for some training sessions, apparently. I have no idea what the hell they're going to tell me or what I'll be doing once the training is over… but it'll be an honest day's pay."

She felt a little wave of relief despite her own fears, and thought 'how smart of Hurley' to keep Sawyer from drifting away from them all.

"Be careful with the clutch," she handed Sawyer the keys to her car and her hands were shaking. He didn't comment on that, or the fact that tears were streaming down her face. He took the keys silently.

"The gears grind a little if you don't really press…" she nearly got the word 'down' out but failed and Sawyer stepped forward and put his arms around her and squeezed her very tight, rocking her side to side as she sobbed for the first time at everything she'd lost and everything she feared was ahead. He held her until she stopped crying.

"I feel like I'm running in circles," she said and Sawyer shrugged, but sincerely, without sarcasm.

"I'm afraid you are. But if Hurley says you'll come back I believe you'll come back. I don't know how the hell he knows but I know he wouldn't lie about it even to spare your feelings."

She nodded, and he stepped back, kissed her on the forehead and walked to her car

Kate dragged herself back into the SUV, and was asleep before they hit the highway, but it was not a good sleep. Later she had a vague memory of being carried awkwardly down into the sub, and of someone pouring sips of orange juice down her throat. She knew from having drugged a person or two that it was highly laced: the sedative given to most everyone headed back to the island under water. The next thing she saw was a shaft of light as the sub hatch opened, and the next things she smelled were the trees and plants and the ocean and she knew she had come full circle again.

Kate's cellphone rang as she was buckling her seat belt and she nearly missed the call while digging into her purse. She held the phone up and saw Sawyer's number.

"Where are you? How long until you land in L.A.?"

"Well, hello and how are you doing as well, sweetheart?" The sarcasm dripped off Sawyer's voice like honey-vinaigrette but she smiled. She could hear he was happy. His weekend trip to see Cassidy and meet Clementine must have gone well, better than he had hoped.

"Sorry, James, but you're badly needed back here and I've gotta go or I'm gonna miss my flight to Portland."

"I'm just getting off the plane, I'm here," His voice went very business-like, hearing the stress in hers."But don't come to the airport, we've got a change in plans."

Kate had put the phone on hands-free and was backing out of the garage but hit the brakes and put her head on the wheel. She'd been feeling more waves of exhaustion, and stronger ones every day and she knew instinctively that if she didn't find the answer to her dilemma soon, she was in big trouble. It might be nearly too late already.

"What change in plans?" She raised her head long enough to ask.

"The sub was built in Portland, but it's floating down the coast right now. It's being taken to Long Beach to be delivered…"

"To Richard?" Kate asked hopefully.

"I don't think so. I got a description from them of the person in charge of getting it made and paid for, and I'm pretty sure it's our favorite Other Ben. He and a crew from the manufacturing company are headed back to the island today."

"Ben? How did he get here, why isn't he with Hurley?"

"I don't know but we'll get that out of him, if we get to him soon. He's headed for the Lamp Post station. He needs coordinates for the island from Eloise and then they're out of here."

Kate hit the gas in a hurry."I'm on my way there."

"I'll meet you as soon as I can…" Sawyer started to say but she cut him off.

"No, I need you to go straight to my house and talk with Carole…" She stopped in mid-sentence."No, never mind. It's better if I tell you first hand, and I'd feel better having you around to back me up dealing with Ben right now."

"Roger that, gotta go, I'm at the cab stand."

They both hung up without a goodbye, and Kate thought at least they'd have one at the church. She had learned not to take them for granted.

It took nearly an hour to make the drive across town to the site of the Lamp Post, but once she got there Kate just sat in her parked car dreading a reunion with Eloise. She remembered the mix of expressions on her face last time they'd met: Deep pain that Daniel wasn't really among the Ajira-316 survivors, and a grudging respect at how Kate had sold the flat-out lie and used it to convince Eloise to get herself and her friends home.

Kate had lit into her that day with a fury, telling Eloise it was her fault Jack was dead and asking how any mother in her right mind would have sent Daniel back knowing he'd die too, and at her own hands. Eloise had let her spew, and didn't say a word until Kate ran out of them.

"I wish for you, dear, that you never have to make the choices I've been compelled to make. But if you are forced to… find me then and we'll talk," was all Eloise had said.

The parking lot was empty now except for a couple of church vans and a car. Kate wondered how she'd get in or find out for sure if Eloise was even there, when they both arrived—Ben driving an SUV, followed almost immediately by Sawyer's cab. What timing, Kate thought, and was relieved.

Ben got out of his vehicle and walked toward Kate, totally disregarding Sawyer and gazing at her with some surprise and, she could see, a small measure of alarm. She realized he could see she wasn't her most vibrant, healthy self. Kate glared at him out of reflex as much as anything.

"Hello, Kate. I'll skip the pleasantries I can see they'd be wasted."

"Sorry, Ben. It's going to take some time … some serious time for me to be glad to see you."

"Thank you for your honesty."

"Okay, then, return the favor and tell me honestly, is Hurley okay? Why are you here and not with him?"

"Hurley is fine," Ben said patiently as Sawyer joined them and threw Ben a look that said it had better be true."In fact, part of the reason I'm here is to pick up the sub and mend some of our off-island fences and part is to bring these two fine people back to the island with me." He motioned to the SUV and they saw that Hugo's parents were sitting it the back seat, waving like crazy and smiling. Kate couldn't have looked more shocked. Ben shrugged.

"Hurley wants to keep both of his worlds intact. Don't worry, they've been properly warned, they know what they're getting into."

Ben started to walk toward the church and Kate and Sawyer followed him.

"So tell me, why are you two here? What can I do for you?" Ben asked it casually, like he'd be glad to help if he could but they were not the first things on his agenda.

Kate stepped in front of him and stopped him in mid-gait.

"I need you to find Richard Alpert. Now."

"Why do you need Richard?"

"Because I'm pregnant, and I spent too much time near the Swan hatch right after the incident. I'm sick – and I think if I don't get some of the vaccine that Claire got on the island… I'm dead."

Her voice caught, and Ben said nothing for a second but nodded with a frown in respect of her fears.

"I'm sorry, Kate, but I don't know where Richard is. I do know he can't help you. That serum, what there was of it and whatever good it actually did, it's gone. There's none on the island, there's none anywhere. But don't despair." He ducked his head to meet Kate's downturned eyes."Let's go to the Lamp Post, and see if Hurley and Bernard have gotten in touch via the Flame. We'll want to ask Hurley, if possible, but I'm pretty sure I know the answer to your problem."

"And what's that?" Sawyer snapped.

Ben turned to look at him."We need to get her back to the island."

Kate's expression showed how unwelcome the news was, and somehow so unexpected and not surprising at the same time. Sawyer looked furiously skeptical.

"I thought pregnant women only died on the island, and you want to take her back there?"

"I think the island reset itself, or rather what Desmond and Jack did reset it. It's just a hunch, based on how the place has felt in the three months since then but I really think the impact of the Incident and the electromagnetic residue from when the Swan hatch blew are gone entirely. So, it can only heal now – if it wants to. If Kate goes back and the island still wants her to live… she will."

Kate's heart rose and sank at the same time. She rolled her eyes and shook her head, realizing Ben was very likely right, and that once again it was her own damn fault her back was against a wall. So she didn't really have a choice, she had to go. If it turned out that the island had no use for her anymore, she'd be dead soon either way. And if it did still need her, then it was her only hope.

Kate was spared from having to see Eloise that day. She stayed in Ben's SUV and talked with the Reyes's while Sawyer and Ben went inside.

"Do you really know what you're getting into?" She asked them after awhile, twisting around from the front seat to face them. She couldn't help but smile despite how horrible she felt, Hurley's parents always made her smile.

"No, Ben was very thorough about describing it," David Reyes nodded."We're good, we're all in."

"We're just so happy you're coming, too," Carmen patted Kate's arm."A familiar face helps so much. Now it feels more like an adventure, and less like a voluntary kidnapping."

They were interrupted as Ben opened the driver's side door. Kate could see Sawyer standing waiting for her a few steps away.

"Kate, go say your goodbyes but make it quick" Ben said."Eloise just got in touch with the Flame a few hours ago, they've got the web and Skype going. Hurley said to get you there as fast as possible. As in now."

Kate realized from his tone that whatever Hurley had told him about her situation had been enough to rattle Ben, who had no reason, really, to worry or care about her fate. She knew he was worried for her purely on behalf of Hurley. Ben looked up and was taken aback by the fear on Kate's face. He started again, in a softer tone.

"You don't have to stay there forever. In fact, he said to assure you that he knows you'll come home again. 'No worries' in his words. But you have to be on the island immediately and stay until your son is born."

Kate gasped at the word son, but didn't say a word in reply. She half stumbled out of the car and walked over to Sawyer, barely feeling the ground beneath her feet. She saw his mutely miserable expression that seemed to be pleading with her not to ask him what Hurley had said.

"Try to keep them safe," He knew she was talking about Claire and Aaron and the alarming evidence that Claire was more out of touch with reality than they'd understood. He nodded."You gonna go crazy just the four of you in that house for a few months?" she asked.

He shook his head and a hint of a rueful smile crossed his lips but didn't really make it to his eyes."I'll keep busy enough – I just picked up some work." She looked confused."I'm Hurley's new head of off-island security, he wants me to learn how to run defense for him against the Widmore Nation and whatever's left of the Dharma and Hanso people. Eloise is sending someone by for some training sessions, apparently. I have no idea what the hell they're going to tell me or what I'll be doing once the training is over… but it'll be an honest day's pay."

She felt a little wave of relief despite her own fears, and thought 'how smart of Hurley' to keep Sawyer from drifting away from them all.

"Be careful with the clutch," she handed Sawyer the keys to her car and her hands were shaking. He didn't comment on that, or the fact that tears were streaming down her face. He took the keys silently.

"The gears grind a little if you don't really press…" she nearly got the word 'down' out but failed and Sawyer stepped forward and put his arms around her and squeezed her very tight, rocking her side to side as she sobbed for the first time at everything she'd lost and everything she feared was ahead. He held her until she stopped crying.

"I feel like I'm running in circles," she said and Sawyer shrugged, but sincerely, without sarcasm.

"I'm afraid you are. But if Hurley says you'll come back I believe you'll come back. I don't know how the hell he knows but I know he wouldn't lie about it even to spare your feelings."

She nodded, and he stepped back, kissed her on the forehead and walked to her car.

Kate dragged herself back into the SUV, and was asleep before they hit the highway, but it was not a good sleep. Later she had a vague memory of being carried awkwardly down into the sub, and of someone pouring sips of orange juice down her throat. She knew from having drugged a person or two that it was highly laced: the sedative given to most everyone headed back to the island under water. The next thing she saw was a shaft of light as the sub hatch opened, and the next things she smelled were the trees and plants and the ocean and she knew she had come full circle again.


	11. Ben and Annie reunite

**Annie learns a crush can wound**

"How's the patient?" Hurley ducked his head into the storage room of the Staff Station and waved at Annie who was intently bending and stretching, moving boxes of supplies. She jumped, broke into a pealing laugh and just kept going.

"You startled me!" She had been working this hard for three days, ever since Hurley warned her Kate might need her help urgently. She had already planned to round up all the medical supplies from Hydra Island and set the Staff up as a full time clinic, and while she hadn't expected to have her first patient so soon she was ready when the sub arrived.

"Lovely," he thought was the word to describe her "And smart and self-assured." He decided his walkie-talkie code name for her would be Eowyn. Hurley did not have a crush on Ben Linus' childhood sweetheart, but he understood why Ben had.

"Kate is still asleep," Annie pointed with her elbow toward the room that used to be the nursery but now was a recovery room. "I think she'll be awake soon, though."

"I'll go sit with her awhile, then, why don't you take a break?"

Annie nodded, put down one last box and wiped her hands on her jeans. "I think I will. If she does wake up, she can have all the water or juice she wants but make sure the IV stays in for the meds. She'll be feeling weak for another day or so, but her vitals are looking great and her blood count is perfect. She's really recovering very well."

"Thanks, Annie," Hurley said as she grabbed a two-way radio and waved it to show she'd be a quick call away. "Going anywhere particular for your break?"

"No, why, need something?" She turned and asked.

"No, just wondered. Ben's bungalow is the one right across from the rec hall," Hurley said and she grinned and rolled her eyes a bit, but for the first time since they'd met he saw a hint of red in her cheeks as she turned again and left.

Hurley pulled a metal chair up next to Kate's cot, grabbed a worn copy of "The Two Towers" that sat on a bookshelf nearby, and settled in for a read.

It had only been about 40 hours since the sub had returned, and caring for Kate and getting Hurley's parents settled into their bungalow had been everyone's priorities. Annie told herself that's why Ben hadn't sought her out but as the hours piled up and he never appeared she realized he was avoiding her. "Time to put an end to that," she thought.

It was late afternoon and the light through the trees was at a strong angle, a little in her eyes but doing beautiful things with the greens and the browns of the jungle and the drops of rain from a recent shower.

Annie was 12 when she and her mom got on the sub and left the island right before the Incident. Her parents were pretty high up in the Dharma hierarchy, and even though they sheltered her well she knew more than they thought she did about the place they lived, their jobs, just about everything they thought she was in the dark about. "Kids always understand more than their parents think," she had told her mom not too long ago. Her mother had said they'd go back to the island, but then she stopped saying it. She had never seen her dad again. One day when she was 27 and visiting home, her mother told her that her father was dead. She wouldn't elaborate, and Annie had learned not to ask more than her mom was willing to tell unless she was actually looking for a fight.

She had started planning her way back as soon as she was old enough to think about college. She insisted on doing her bachelor's degree at University of Michigan to be in Ann Arbor, site of the former Dharma HQ. She took her medical degree via a US government program for underserved communities in Guam, and she traveled the South Pacific looking for the people she knew she'd find eventually: The people who could help her get back to the island. Because although she cared about her mom, everything paled for her except for two things: Becoming a doctor, and figuring out how it was the island was the ultimate MD, able to cure some illnesses and mend some wounds better than any human ever could.

She was at Ben's door now and could hear music playing, Chopin's "Fantasie Impromptu". She raised her hand to knock, stopped, then raised it again and tapped on the door. Seconds later the music went down a notch. She realized she was nervous, something she didn't really feel all that often.

The door opened and there stood Ben, looking at her silently for what felt like so long but was really just a couple of seconds. He was smiling but it was, Annie thought, a smile suggesting five parts dream come true and ten parts pain.

"Annie, come in," He stepped sideways, holding the door and gestured for her to walk by him. He didn't move, though, and as she stepped through the narrow bungalow door her arm grazed his. She thought he was taller than she'd expected him to be, more composed and … well, he was real, not the vague idea of "how Ben might have turned out" that she had carried with her.

She saw he'd been sitting at his coffee table, maps spread out over it and a journal on the couch. She sat at one end and turned the top map to look at his handwriting, notations, and the lines drawn from one place to the next. He sat to her right, moved the journal to an end table and looked at her.

"I would have recognized you anywhere," Ben said, the smile a little less sad but now mixed with some bemusement. "How in the hell did you get back here, Annie? How did you find Penny and Desmond?"

"Well I certainly didn't know them… " She said. "But I'd been looking for them, or people like them, for a lot of years. It was really only a matter of time, wasn't it, before someone determined to get back here would find someone who could get them back?"

He nodded briefly and looked down and didn't seem to want to look back up at her. He continued to look down at the sofa cushion as he spoke.

"That's why it's hard for me to say this, but you have to leave."

He was shocked when she laughed out loud, and that got his gaze back up. Annie flinched. There was a little bit of fury in his eyes but then it was gone and the 'ten parts pain' returned.

"I'm serious, you can't stay here. It's not safe. And I may be more of a threat to you than this place ever could be."

She made a sound of deep disbelief, watching him reach forward and play with the corner of one of the maps. Ben's expression hardened at the sound.

"What did Hurley tell you about me?" He asked.

"Not much. He said you'd been through a tough time, like a lot of people here," Annie stood again and found herself walking the room a bit though she couldn't have said why since she had just sat down. "He said you'd done some 'unfortunate' things over the years. He didn't tell me what that meant."

"So he didn't tell you I killed my own father?" Ben asked, almost casually. "He didn't tell you that I was part of the murder of more than 40 members of the Dharma Initiative, your father included by the way, in a purge in 1992? He didn't tell you…" Ben stood and walked toward her and while her brain was almost overwhelmed with trying to digest all this horrifying news, she found her body walking slowly backward toward the door. "That I manipulated many more people's lives and set some of them up to die when they became … inconvenient to me? That some might call me a sociopath?" He nearly spat the last few words out and they both realized at the same second that he was suddenly very in her face and her back was almost against the wall. His right hand was digging down into her left shoulder, gripping it hard enough that it would ache for a couple of days.

Ben stepped back, almost as shaken as she was but mostly angry with himself for tipping his hand, showing so much anger and so little subtlety. He knew it rattled him she was here, but hadn't realized how much.

"Annie, how did you find Penny and Desmond? I heard the story about you striking up a conversation over lunch at a marina, so you can skip all that. Tell me who told you where to find them?"

Her eyes were wide, but they narrowed and she walked in the general direction of the door though it seemed she did that more to be near it than to leave immediately.

"Why be so indirect in your questioning, Ben? If I'm reading you right, you're telling me you think I'm, what, a spy for some lingering Dharma splinter group, or Alvar Hanso's iffy arms dealer buddies or maybe the Widmore Corporation? Or that I'm a pawn of theirs, maybe I agreed to work for them if they'd take to the people who would get me back? Let me save you some time. I am here on my own, and I'm not a spy. And yes, we met over lunch but I waited weeks and did my research and I didn't tell Penny and Desmond my history or ask them to take me with them until I knew what kind of people they are. Of course, if you doubt me then nothing I'm saying here means much to you, right?"

She was angrier than she'd ever remembered being before and when he looked at her and saw her face almost illuminated with it, he thought she was either telling the truth or was a very, very good actress. He'd need more time to be sure which it was.

"Do you remember… do you know how hard I tried to keep you in the DI and not let you run to the hostiles?" Annie said. "I knew that would be the worst decision you could have made. Guess I was right. What in the hell did they do to you?"

"Nothing I didn't participate freely in." Ben said, and walked back over to the couch and sat down. "And nothing I wouldn't do again to protect this place."

The threat was mostly unspoken, but not lost on her. Annie walked back toward the couch but did not sit.

"Well, that's something we have in common, still then," she said more calmly and though he didn't look up at her she knew he was listening. "My folks may have been Dharma, but I never owed that group my allegiance. I'm here for the island. And I'm not leaving. I was hoping all these years to find you here, too – but you were not my top priority. And I'm not going. I would have hoped, Ben, that you'd have had my back. I sure used to have yours. Think about that, maybe, and lose the paranoia a little? If you do, I'll tell you why I'm here. I think you'll like the answer."

He never acknowledged what she had said or moved his gaze from the floor. A few seconds later, she walked out, her hand shaking as she pushed the door shut. She didn't run but walked very quickly back to her bungalow and locked every door and window. It would be a week before they'd talk again.


	12. Frank is saved Disaster hits the Island

Frank Lapidus was in the lobby of the Nauru airport, left there by security guards who plopped him down into one of the 20 waiting area seats and then shut themselves in the office to his left. He could hear them talking and could see through the iced glass that one of them was on a phone. He figured they were trying to decide what to do with him.

It had been less than an hour since he and the rest of the Ajira-316 survivors had bolted from the plane after escaping the island and landing here, the closest place where they might have a half-decent chance of running for the hills and escaping notoriety.

Most of the rest, Sawyer, Miles, Kate, Claire had done just that- run. Richard had been right there beside Frank until suddenly he wasn't, he just disappeared and although Frank had been in a few tight spots in his life, this one, he thought, felt as bad as any of them. It was only a matter of time before the guards came back out of that room and took him somewhere and the only somewhere he could imagine based on all that had happened was a jail cell.

Frank looked at the door behind him, even though he knew it was bolted from both the inside and out. His eyes darted around the room looking for another option and that's when he saw a ceiling tile above the ticket counter in front of him move a fraction of an inch. At first, he thought it was his imagination but then the tile went from sliding slowly left to zipping out of sight, leaving a hole in the ceiling. A second later he saw just the glint of eyes, someone trying to tell if the coast was clear, and then half a head ducked down. Frank had to restrain himself from yelling with relief.

"Richard," he said it as quietly as possible, trying not to attract the attention of the men in the other room. "That you?"

"Yes," The face disappeared again, and a single rung of the chain-metal ladder they'd used to escape the plane slid down from the gap in the ceiling, showing just enough for him to get the hint. "Let's get out of here, walk slowly to the counter and come up. I've got it tied to the support beams."

Frank didn't hesitate, if anything moving faster than he maybe should have. He could see, though, that no one in the room next door was looking at him in those few seconds and he said a silent prayer of thanks. As soon as he was up, he started crawling along the supports between the ceiling and the roof heading away from the lobby area as Richard replaced the tile and followed him. Eventually they dropped down into the locker room where Kate and Claire had equipped themselves for escape just minutes before. If they'd arrived much sooner, they could have joined the rest of the Ajira-316 on their way to Los Angeles. But it was no accident they didn't: Richard had timed it just the way he'd wanted it, so that Frank would come with him and help him with what was needed next.

As soon as they were out of the building Richard motioned for Frank to follow him and they ran for the neighborhood south of the airport. Richard stopped by a car parked near a small warehouse and tossed Frank the keys. Frank noticed him futzing with a GPS device as he started it up and soon the first command sounded out…. "Stop… two tenths of one mile ahead and turn right…"

Frank looked at Richard, who just nodded and pointed, and said "We're going to the piers, we're taking a boat to Guam."

"And then what?" Frank asked immediately. "I'd like to think you'll just let me hop a flight to the Bahamas and get on with flying tourists around for an hour and a half at a time, but I'm guessing that's not in the cards."

Richard laughed a little. "Good guess, Frank. You've got to help Hurley and me out for a while. You can disappear eventually, but not now. Why?" He anticipated the question. "Think about it: You just piloted a plane on which a whole lot of people disappeared forever. You can't go home or go anywhere you'll be looked for until time has passed and if you try you are going to be put through a ringer the likes of which you haven't even started to think about. Work with us, and we can build you a new identity. And really…" He looked at Frank as he drove. "What else do you have to live for now but helping your friends? Anything wonderful you're rushing off to?"

Frank shook his head at the harsh statement but realized it was true. Looking at Richard to say something snappy back, he stopped and for the first time realized how thoroughly beaten up Richard looked. He was favoring his right arm, had a deep bruise on his forehead and stitches on one cheekbone where he'd gotten a gash.

"What HAVE you been up to lately?" Frank followed the latest GPS instructions and saw water and a pier ahead. They were close to escape.

"I've been back here three times since we landed, " Richard said, "Once to make sure Kate and Claire got away, once to help Miles and Sawyer escape… and now to get you." He could see Frank starting to ask the obvious questions about time and space, and just shook his head. "I haven't even explained everything to Hurley yet, so don't ask me to explain it all to you. I will. Right now we're going to Guam, though, and then we're going to L.A. to get Walt."

"Who the hell is Walt?" Frank asked.

"He was on Oceanic 815 with is father and he has skills I need right now." Frank gave him a flabbergasted look, demanding just a little more info and Richard answered in a tone that made it clear he was annoyed at being pressured. "He has a natural ability to project himself into places other than the one he's actually in at the moment. If I were better at that, more precise about it, well, I wouldn't be half so sore right now. I've been to the island since you saw me last, too, and I know they're safe there for the next three months. That's just enough time to go get Walt, get him trained, and take him back to the island… before they're not safe. We can't wait for them to act, we have to."

"I'd ask you what the hell it is we have to protect them from, " Frank said, parking the car and handing him back the keys. "But I'm sure I don't want to know."

"No," Richard said. "You really don't. You'll will, though, soon enough."

Back on the island those three months later, Hurley was dozing lightly in a metal folding chair against a wall in The Staff station, the book he'd been reading just barely grasped in his sleepy fingers when he heard rustling sound and realized Kate was waking up in the hospital cot next to him. He snapped to and saw her looking right and left, very confused. He put one hand on her shoulder and squeezed it, drawing her gaze back to him and her face went from panic to calm with a tired smile.

"Hi, Hurley."

"Hi, Kate. Welcome back."

"How did you know?" She asked, and it was Hurley's turn to look confused. "How do you know I'm having a boy? Got a long-distance sonogram machine I don't know about?"

He broke out laughing.

"You cut to the chase, don't you? I know because last Tuesday I was walking a beach here that's still kind of new to me, and I saw the two of you running and playing on it someday."

Most would have been put off by the strange wording in that sentence, but not either of them. Kate nodded.

"I'm still figuring out a lot about leading the island and about what it's doing to me to be the leader," Hurley went on. "But every so often it just kind of shows me stuff. Sometimes it's confusing and sometimes I totally get it. This time, I was walking and there you two were. He looked like he was about three, and I could feel that you were here visiting with him, it was his first time on the island, at least the first time that he'll remember when he grows up. Then you were gone. Something told me the only way all of it could happen is if we got you here pronto. So… here you are."

They were both silent for a minute though she never moved her gaze from his face.

"Where did you bury him?" Kate asked, and again no translation was needed.

"On our beach, near Locke."

"Will you go there with me?"

"Of course- but later, okay? Annie says you're doing a lot better, but it was close. You need to rest for another day at least."

"Annie?"

"Our new doctor," Hurley said and then stopped, kicking himself for just blurting it out so casually. Kate looked more surprised than hurt so he went on. "Des and Penny brought her back, along with the crew of Penny's boat and some of her other employees. Richard has been back already, too, and he's up to something, God knows what because he would barely tell me anything. But Richard says Ben's already lied to me at least once – I haven't gotten in his face about that yet, but I'll have to…."

Hurley paused, running out of steam and looking apologetic for spitting it all out so randomly. Kate looked at him with pity in her eyes and put a hand on his arm.

"I'm glad you're back, Kate, even if you aren't glad. I can use someone I totally trust to talk to."

"Well, you've got me….." Kate was about to say for six more months, when the door next to them flew open and Penny collapsed on the floor in front of them, heaving and drenched with sweat. She tried to stand up, bent over and nearly fell again, gasping and Hurley ran to the storeroom and came back with a bottle of water. She gulped at it as best she could, trying to talk at the same time.

"Where is Annie? They're behind me… bringing Bernard. He's been shot."

"Shot by who?" Hurley asked.

"These people…." Penny drank again, still in some distress. "We were working on a new building for The Flame and we heard a buzzing, and then they appeared out of literally nowhere armed to the teeth and wearing camouflage. They didn't say anything to us at all, they just started shooting. My crew had guns, and Des too. They fired back. We killed them all, but Bernard was hit."

Hurley didn't wait for anything more, he left for Annie's bungalow realizing as he did that it had been two hours since she'd left for her short break.

Kate lay there in her cot, watching Penny sitting against the wall, still out of breath with her arm on her knee and the hand that was holding the bottle of water shaking hard.

"Penny, what didn't you tell Hurley just now?" Kate asked.

"These people we shot: Des said they looked like the ones who came here on the freighter. But when we walked up to their bodies they were … bleeding orange. It couldn't have been any weirder than if they'd been bleeding green." Kate looked horrified and Penny was pale as a ghost. "So we not only have to figure out who the hell they are," she said, "But what the hell they are, too."


	13. Miles and Sawyer are back in business

Miles Straum was in his office finishing a sandwich and scrolling through an online database hunting for clues in his latest case when his phone rang. He set down the sandwich, saw "Caller ID blocked" on the phone display, chugged some water and picked up.

"'We're on It' Private Investigations, Miles here. What can I get answered for you?"

"Nice greeting," He recognized James Ford's voice almost immediately. "But you can save the marketing pitch for another call, it's me."

"Well you're not dead, then, how nice for you," Sawyer didn't bite at the gibe so Miles went on. "I've called you, what, three times in the five weeks we've been back? You don't call, you don't write… now we're back on an 'It's me' basis?"

"Sorry, I've been a little busy figuring out which the hell way is up. I've been helping Kate, and meeting my daughter. Then there's trying to keep Claire from running up and down the street asking the neighbors directions back to the island. How is your month going?"

Miles grinned, took another bite of his sandwich and chewed as he answered.

"Ah, it's okay. I have a few jobs already."

"Yeah, and how much have you made on those jobs, pre-tax all told?" Sawyer asked.

"About 12k," Miles said, inflating it only slightly.

"What if I told you that if you come see me, you can land at least 15 times that a year? And under the table."

Sawyer heard a hollow laugh at the other end.

"I'd ask what I have to do for it, of course," Miles said. "And if it's legal. You separating people from their money again? Is that why I haven't heard back?"

"No, that's not it. I agreed to do security and investigations for a certain island nation we've both been unwilling citizens of. Hurley needs someone watching his back here at home. I'm about to get the details but I'm guessing it's not a one person job."

"Hurley? So that's how things shook out. In over his head much?"

Sawyer made a face at the phone, rolling his eyes, but not entirely in disagreement.

"He's got Ben there to help him learn his way. I'll never trust Ben any further than he could throw me, but it seems like he's doing his job so far."

"Either that," Miles interrupted. "Or he's letting Hurley sit on the throne during the re-building, when there's not much to really be in control of anyway. And then when it matters again… watch out Hurley." He heard an annoyed sigh through the phone line.

"Yeah, that'd be my guess," Sawyer said. "Pretty much what I've been thinking, which is half the reason I said yes when Hurley asked me to help him. Not to mention that Kate was going back there, and so…"

"Um, hello?" Was all Miles said to that, banging the phone on the desk lightly afterward for emphasis.

"Yeah. Long story. Listen, Eloise Hawking, don't know if you know her but she's a high-level Other. She's sending around a couple of trainers. I have zero idea what to expect but I think if I'm going to get you in on the deal you need to be here for that. Why don't you come see me, I can catch you up and we can figure it out."

Miles picked up his cell phone and tucked it in his jacket pocket, picked up his car keys, and tossed the sandwich wrapper in the trash.

"Listen, I'm not saying yes and I'm not saying no, but I'll come talk. You're at Kate's?" He got a yes back from Sawyer. "I'm on my way. I have something else I need to talk with you about," Miles said before hanging up. "That, by the way, is why I've called you three times in the past five weeks."

Miles pulled up to 42 Panorama Crest, parked at the curb and admired the house as he walked up. Funny, he was thinking, how the Oceanic Six got gobs of money in the settlement after the crash but Sawyer and Claire got nothing. In fact, they barely existed, really, at least in a paperwork sense. He guessed Claire had no identity anymore, and anything Ford was carrying or would be carrying soon would have a new name. All because some of them made it home the first time around, and some didn't and had reason to not want to answer questions.

James had the door open before he could knock and waved him in.

"They here yet?" Miles asked.

"No," Sawyer walked him to the kitchen. "Coffee? Beer?"

"Nothing, thanks," Miles sat and Sawyer stood leaning against the sink drinking the coffee he'd just made. He was thinking it'd probably always be like this for him and Miles-they might not see each other for five weeks or five years, but when the did again they'd fall right into a simple, six-word synch. He realized he was thankful for one utterly uncomplicated friendship.

Miles was looking around the living room and kitchen, noting the stuffed animals and little boy toys scattered around, some piles of laundry folded on a chair waiting to go to someone's room, and he chuckled.

"How's it been living in the House of Estrogen and Toddlers?" he asked and laughed harder as Sawyer very, very slowly shook his head with no comment. "Yeah, I figured."

"At first," he could hear Sawyer was serious now. "None of us had our heads in a good place. It's gotten better. At least it has for Kate and for Aaron. Kate… I'll tell you that story later. Aaron is out with his grandmother right now, shopping. Claire… let's hope she stays in her room, you don't want to see where she's at, it ain't pretty. She tried to connect with him at first, but now she sleeps most of the day. She keeps saying to anyone who'll listen that she has to find Richard Alpert so he can help her find her friend from the island…"

"Oh, God," Miles said, too struck by it to be sarcastic or glib. "I had no idea. What are you going to do?"

"Honestly if it gets any worse, we're going to have to figure that out," Sawyer said. "Especially if we're going to be on the road a lot. Awful hard to keep her safe here in her little cuckoo's nest if we're in New York or Seattle or Ann Arbor…wherever they send us."

"What's this 'we' shit?" Miles asked, and Sawyer just smiled a little and kept drinking his coffee.

"Why were you trying to get me on the phone?" Sawyer asked and it was Miles' turn to get serious.

"You know about my talent with hearing what happened to dead people just before they died, right?" Sawyer just nodded. "It's a really specific skill, I don't sit and chat and play chess with them like Hurley, I just have a sense of what they were thinking, feeling, and what they knew before they died. I've had it since I was a kid, and believe me, it's the only paranormal thing I've ever experienced. But since we got back, I've been having these weird, waking…. visions. I think they're things that are happening on the island."

Sawyer suddenly looked very interested.

"Like?"

"Like at first I saw the island at night, and there was this huge bang and a white light sweeping around. Then, suddenly, I knew I was seeing another day, and Desmond and Penny were walking on the dock, Hurley was meeting them."

"They got back the other week." Sawyer interrupted him, nodding. "They're Hurley's new recruiters and they're going to help people get around by boat, too."

"How the hell did you find that out?" Miles asked.

"We were at the Lamp Post with Eloise, just before Kate left. Hurley and Bernard have the Flame back up, at least partially, they've got the web and Skype running."

"Huh," Miles gave an amused little laugh and then was thoughtful again. "You mention Bernard… that's the last thing I saw. This morning, I'm sitting at my desk and just like a movie is playing in my head. I see all these people in camouflage appear out of nowhere. They're shooting at Penny and Desmond, Bernard and some other people I don't recognize."

"Penny's crew," Sawyer said.

"And Bernard was shot. That was it. I've been trying to reach you to find out if anyone ever heard from Richard after he disappeared. I think I need to talk to someone on the island, find out what the hell these things are all about. So far, it's only happened when I'm sitting in my office or walking home, but…" He looked at Sawyer, and Sawyer could see the genuine concern in his face. "It's only a matter of time until it happens when I'm driving or crossing a street, and, well… I don't really want to think about it. I've kind of been wondering if it's posttraumatic stress. Maybe I'm losing my mind."

Sawyer shook his head. "Richard ain't anywhere I know about, but we don't need him for this. I can tell you for sure at least one of the things you saw was for real. Ever thought maybe you're perfectly sane? Maybe it's just that even though you're done with the island it's not done with you?"

Miles looked back at him blankly.

"Hurley's been getting these sudden little filmstrips playing, too. He says sometimes he sees the history of the island, sometimes things that are happening now or will soon. No pattern yet. He's pretty sure it's the island itself clueing him in. And since you and he are the only two people I know who share that 'I talk to dead people' skill, maybe you're both also prime candidates for these little visual insights from the old sod."

Not entirely to Sawyer's surprise, Miles broke into a string of profanities that Sawyer was glad Aaron was not home to hear. Sawyer just laughed softly, putting the coffee down and sitting next to Miles, slapping him on the back.

"Look, it'll be okay. Work with me. We'll be doing it for our friends, but we're not doing it for nothing, I'll make sure we're very well paid. And I can do the driving, or pull you out of the intersection if you space out in mid-step. Plus, it'll be awful handy to have someone on the payroll who's mentally plugged in to the home office that way."

A couple of hours later the deal was made and they'd had their first training session. The two men who showed up were, they agreed later, on the creepy side and neither of them could tell Sawyer or Miles anything about what was going on with Hurley's crew on the island. They mostly gave them tips, handed Sawyer new IDs, pointed them to web sites with training videos that they warned would only be live for a day – so watch them now. And then they told them to meet them at the Lamp Post the next day for more information. They didn't object when Sawyer insisted Miles was in. He didn't even have to go into details: Eloise, they told him, had instructed them to agree to just about anything Sawyer asked. Which included their pay, which Sawyer hiked even more on the spur of the moment. Miles would get his $3.2 million he'd been looking for in about three years' time.

After they left, Miles went home to grab some things and come stay at Kate's. Sawyer called Eloise.

"I hear you drove quite a good bargain for yourself and for Miles," Eloise said immediately,

"Yeah, you all can afford it I'm sure. Did your suits tell you about Miles' flashes? He said he saw some sort of attack on the island and Bernard was shot. Maybe this morning."

"Yes, they did. I haven't heard from anyone there yet, but perhaps they're dealing with the immediate issues," Eloise said. There was no reply, so she went on. "Sorry, dear, if I sound blasé but we haven't set up a routine of regular communications yet, and I'm sure Hurley will be in touch as soon as he can. If something is going on, I doubt it's any worse than the other five hundred crises I've been through in my post. At least I'll doubt it until I hear otherwise, or what I can actually do about it."

"Who are you people? That's something you're going to tell me tomorrow, Eloise, and in detail. I want the whole story."

"Of course." She said. "It's time. But you got the short answer on the Pala Ferry landing from Ben three years ago. We're the good guys, Sawyer. And now, so are you."

Sawyer said goodbye until tomorrow and went to the pool to sit in quiet and wait for Miles to get back. It was only then he looked at his watch, and thought that it seemed Carole had been gone with Aaron an awfully long time.


	14. Walt Returns

**Note to those who have been so kind as to read this far: This is going to be the last long entry for awhile- I want to try to play with shorter, moodier, less plot-packed chapters for awhile – while hopefully still moving things along. Critiques (negative as well as positive, really) are welcome. For this chapter, I wanted to try to capture a little of that frenetic pace of those episodes where SO much was happening at once. I miss them.**

**If you don't want to review, please just tell me if you have a moment, something about where you're from and why you love LOST. The list of countries I see in the stats tool every month is such a thrill to me– the fact that people in Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Turkey, India, Pakistan, Mexico, New Zealand, Australia, Peru and other countries have read even a few words of this story makes me feel SO happy and lucky! I wish they broke down the US stats more, too. Anyway, thank you so much, again, for reading this far, and Namaste and good luck.**

Ten minutes ago, Des and Mathias and the rest of Penny's crew had burst into The Staff carrying Bernard between them, some of them shouting for Annie and all of them looking around wildly for help. Seconds later Hurley returned with their new doctor, pulling her along by the hand. She ducked into the storage room and handed Hurley stacks of sheets, telling him to drape them over the table in the surgical ward while she went to Bernard and started looking over his gunshot wounds.

Rose came in a little behind the rest, walking in circles as all this went on around her. Eventually, Henrik realized she needed someone's attention too and started pacing the room by her side, one arm over her shoulder and he only stopped when Annie shouted for help getting Bernard to surgery.

Then most everyone was gone, and the little recovery room that had been so full of chaos was entirely silent. Penny was still sitting against the wall, looking a little dazed but finally not out of breath. Kate was lying on the cot, silently watching them both, as Rose kept circling the room. Then suddenly Kate reached over to her left hand with her right and pulled the IV out of it with one swift move, pressing the bed sheet against her hand as a little blood spurted out. She pressed down, checked, pressed, checked, until all was well. Then she tied her hair back and put on the sneakers sitting on the floor near her cot.

"Penny, will you stay with her?" She looked over at Rose as she asked, and Penny stood up, startled out of her own little pool of shock and went over to Rose, nodding.

"Where are you going?" Penny asked.

"Back to where Bernard got shot. Do you think you got them all? Whoever …whatever these gunmen were? Or could more still be out there?" She saw Penny shaking her head with a look of confusion and regret.

"I think… we missed one. I think only one is left out there," she said, leading Rose to a chair and sitting down on the floor next to her. "But I'm not sure." She tuned her attention to Rose, trying to cut through her state of shock and Kate took off for the hatch door. She saw Desmond and grabbed him by an arm, gesturing for him to follow her out for a second.

"I'm going back to the Flame, to see what I can find out about whoever was shooting at you and to look for any signs of survivors or clues," she was clambering up out of the hatch now and Desmond followed. "You don't have to come with me, but someone should know I'm going."

"I'll go," Des said. But he started walking toward the barracks rather than heading for the jungle toward The Flame. Kate called out for him to stop, but he just pointed the way he was headed and kept moving. "First, we need more guns." He pulled a pistol out of his pocket, aiming it up in the air. "And more ammo. Then we'll go. Okay?"

She nodded, following, and they ran all the way there. Desmond went straight to the one bungalow dedicated entirely to storage: Food, clothes, furniture, and a room full of guns and ammo well organized and set out.

"After this," Desmond tossed Kate a handgun and a box of bullets, pulled a rifle off the wall and started loading it. "I think we're gonna have to start locking these up. What do you think?" Kate just made a small sound of agreement. They were both so focused, that when they head a slight scuffling noise in the room behind them they both just spun around, weapons pointed, and froze when they saw Ben. He had his hands in the air and a 'please collect yourselves and don't shoot me' look on his face.

"Holy crap, Ben, what are you doing here?" Kate tucked her gun away, Desmond finished loading the rifle and the three of them left the bungalow. Kate had planned to leave Ben behind, but he was running with them before she knew it and when she started to object to him joining their party he stopped her with a dismissive wave and a shake of his head.

"I heard enough of what's going on," Ben said, "If someone is shooting at Bernard, or Hurley or you…. they're shooting at me, too." Kate, convinced or not, saw the look of determination on his face and nodded. " Plus," Ben said, "I still know this place better than anyone here. I might be of some help."

"Do you want a weapon?" Kate patted the gun in her pocket but Ben shook his head.

"I'll leave that to you two. We have our ways of disappearing into the jungle when necessary."

"You're going to have to teach me that," Kate said.

"One of us will. Maybe Richard." Ben said. "He's much better at it."

On their way, they passed close to the Staff again and speaking of 'out of nowhere' Hurley was suddenly there trying to catch up with them despite all the stuff he was carrying. He was yelling for Kate. They stopped.

"Are you out of your friggin' mind?" Was all Hurley had to scream at Kate. He saw she was half laughing, half annoyed at the question but he wasn't quite done yet. "You aren't supposed to get out of bed for another day, at least, you have to rest..."

"Hurley, I am FINE," Kate yelled with gusto, and threw her arms in the general direction of the entire island. If no one else was clued in to what the gesture meant, Hurley was. "I haven't felt this well in forever," she said, and he saw the color in her face and how, frankly, thrilled she looked to be in a group on their way to track something down together in the jungle. He just sighed, looked down, and handed Desmond a backpack and two torches.

"Bottles of water. And a two-way radio. And matches." Hurley said, pointing at the backpack. Desmond put on the backpack, and handed Kate and Ben the torches and they took off again. As they ran Hurley heard her yell, "We'll be okay. Help Penny and Rose."

Hurley walked back into The Staff and down the corridor toward the surgery. He couldn't bring himself to look fully at the scene playing out there, but he ducked his left ear, part of his head and one eye in and yelled for Annie.

"Any update? What can I tell Rose?" He asked.

"I have two bullets out," He could just see her, hunched over Bernard, "And I think there's a third. I'm still looking…" her voice sounded thin and stressed. Even a tiny glimpse of the scene made Hurley so woozy he had to stick his head in the hall to keep from passing out. "Tell her another half hour, forty minutes at most, I'll be out there. I just hope…." her voice trailed off.

"What do you hope?"

"I hope I didn't give him too much sedative. I'm a surgeon, not an anesthesiologist."

"It'll be okay," Hurley told her, knowing they both realized it might be or it might not be. "You're doing your best."

Hurley started to go to Rose and Penny, but saw from a distance that they were talking quietly with each other. He decided to leave them be, and he went back up and outside and sat on a log a few yards from the hatch. The sun was just about down now, and he realized the group headed for the Flame would be coming back very late. He wished he and Bernard had gotten web and phone connections set up in the barracks already, so he could get in touch with Sawyer and Eloise tonight. But even more, he wished Richard would come the hell back so he could grill him about what he had done, who these random attackers were, and when more enemies might be on the way.

Just as he was thinking that last thought, he heard a droning noise overhead and looked up. A small plane was dropping lower, coming in for a landing- nowhere near the Staff, though. Hurley saw pontoons, and realized it was coming in for a water landing.

Kate, Des and Ben had been running for a while to try to get to the Flame before dark, but as they got closer Desmond called for them all to stop. They agreed to walk from there, partly to try to avoid the attention of a wandering gunman if one was out there, and also to look for signs of anything else amiss. Kate and Ben walked a few steps behind Desmond, in silence at first, but then, while Kate's eyes were scanning near and far constantly, she had time to ask Ben a few questions.

"Hurley didn't get a chance to go into detail," she said. "But he did tell me Richard's up to something risky. That what all this is about?"

"I expect so," Ben said but didn't elaborate.

"And he told me you've lied to him at least once since he took over," She briefly looked at Ben and saw him wince. "Why'd you do that?"

"He asked me about a huge bang we heard and a bright light we saw the night you left. I suspected I knew what it was about, but I couldn't be sure. In fact I still won't know for sure until we talk with Richard again. I just didn't want to give him bad information," Ben said. "It was a lie of omission, that's all."

Kate nodded and looked him in the eyes.

"Don't do it again, okay? In fact, talk to him about it before he even asks you. You want us to believe we're a team now then put up or shut up, okay?" Ben said nothing and they walked in quiet for a few minutes more before Kate went on.

"These people who shot Bernard, Penny said it looked like the freighter people. Why would they be back? Is this time travel?"

"No," Ben said, "We killed all the freighter people, actually, three years ago. These are other versions of them."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"It's," Ben put one hand to his head as they walked, trying to figure out how to explain it best. "A very long story. But to boil it way down, when the Dharma Initiative came here in the '70s they were on a mission to find a loophole for the human race. Somewhere people could escape to if there were an all out nuclear or biochemical war. Another earth… or a series of them."

"That's what all these hatches are about?"

"Ultimately, yes, they were steps toward the end goal. And one of the hatches your people never found, the Weather Vane, it was **all** about that goal. Have you heard of the 'Many Worlds' theory?" Ben asked and Kate shook her head. "Many cosmologists believe the universe is endless, and because of that fact, they say if you go far enough out in it you'll find another Earth with you, me, all of us living on it. On ten of those other worlds everything and everyone might be very much the same, and on the eleventh it might be very different. One some of those worlds, maybe you died without getting off the island. In another, maybe the earth has two moons and you never left your hometown. And if you go further out you'll find another world where you're the Queen of England, and another, and…. Well, the Weather Vane was built on the idea that if these other worlds exist, there must be a way to connect them to each other and travel between them."

Kate stopped suddenly and when Ben looked at her he saw a look of both wild hope and horror on her face at the same time. Desmond had stopped too.

"You okay?" Desmond asked, but Kate ignored him and kept her gaze fixed on Ben who just shook his head slowly.

"You do not want to go there, Kate, or go to any of those other places. Keep out of this dangerous little game Richard is playing," He said, "At least as much as you can. You don't even know that he's alive on any of those other worlds, or that he even knows you if he is alive, or that he's ever been to the island there."

Kate looked rattled, looked away and started walking slowly again.

"I didn't… I wasn't thinking of..."

"Of course not. Very presumptuous of me." Ben said. "I'm sorry."

Kate led the way, then, and the three of them didn't talk for a good twenty minutes until they got to the Flame. They stopped for a second, looking around. There to their left sat the start of the new building Bernard and Des had been working on. Near it, piles of wood, their saws and toolboxes were scattered around and a few feet further three bodies in camouflage were lying in a jagged semi-circle where they fell.

The three of them walked over, and crouched over the bodies. Kate's nose wrinkled at the smell of decomposition, but it was nothing like the carbon-based rot she'd expected to smell. Desmond took the butt of his rifle and gently tapped the one at his feet. The hollow knocking sound was beyond weird and they all looked at each other.

"It's like a hard carapace," Desmond said. "It's like when a bug dies."

"Well, we know a few things," Ben broke it down. "They breathe the same approximate mix of oxygen and other chemicals where they're from, or they wouldn't have lived long enough to attack you. But they're not human, at least not exactly like us. I'm guessing their particular world might not be much use to us or ours to them. All the more shame for us all that they stumbled in here."

Kate had started wandering the area as he talked.

"You think that's it, they stumbled in?" She asked. Ben and Desmond were still crouched low, and Desmond was taking pictures with his cell phone to share with Hurley and whoever else he might need to see them.

"Yes," Ben said. "We'll have to get the details on how it all works from Richard, but that'd be my guess."

Kate was ready to say there was no sign of anything else nearby, they should walk on, when they heard it: The snap of twigs and someone or something headed their way. Desmond and Kate both wheeled in circles, trying to hear where the crunching sounds were coming from. It had started to get dark, but they hadn't taken the time to light the torches and so they couldn't see much in the deep blue air. Then, they caught sight of some motion and both aimed their guns to the north, perpendicular to where they three of them had just walked in.

"We might be outnumbered," Kate said quietly to Des and he nodded. They braced themselves, ready to fire as the sounds turned into shadows and then took shape. But they didn't fire, because the three people walking their way had their hands in the air, torches lit in one of them and the others clearly weapon-free.

"Richard?" Ben asked just as the arrivals came close enough for them all to see it was, indeed him. Kate nearly laughed out loud with relief when she saw Frank Lapidus just behind him, but then gasped when Frank stepped to one side and there stood Walt.

And then, despite her surprise at seeing him, it dawned on Kate that one more question had to be answered before they could put down their guns.

"Richard, if this is the you we all know, then say why you did it. Why did you set off the Weather Vane?" she asked.

Richard turned a very annoyed look on Ben.

"You told them?" he asked and Ben just shot him a wan smile and a shrug.

"It's time, Richard. No more secrets among friends. **Your** little secret, your decision, got Bernard shot. He's in surgery right now."

Ben waved toward the lifeless bodies a few yards away, and the look of shock and disappointment on Richard's face was almost enough to make Kate feel bad for him – until she considered it never would have happened if he hadn't done what he'd done.

Kate took a minute to walk over to Walt, giving him a hug and asking if he was okay. He just nodded, and she could see the mix of confusion on his face with something else- maybe, actually, happiness at being back. She walked him over to Desmond, introduced him and asked him to follow Des as they walked home.

Then they all started out, Kate pulling Ben and Richard back a couple of paces from the others and nearly hissing at Richard.

"Seriously, a boy barely 14-years-old and you brought him back here, took him from his home to come back here?"

"We need him," Richard said and nodded ahead toward Walt emphatically. "Believe me, when you hear the full story, you'll know- we need him here."

"I will hear the full story," Kate said, "And I sure hope you can prove what you did is for the good. And two more things: One, Penny thinks they missed one of these gunman, we may have someone still out here we have to deal with, who may be tracking us even now. And two, you'd both better stop acting like you're in charge and start really doing things entirely on Hurley's behalf or I'll make sure I'm on the team that's in charge of kicking you until you get it straight."

Ben looked at Richard, his eyes wide with "How you like that?" in them. Richard said nothing and looked straight ahead. No one said another word all the way back to the Flame, except for Walt, who was happily telling Desmond all about the trip from Los Angeles.


	15. Special Again

Walter Lloyd was done school for the day. He ran full speed down the stairs toward the subway and was throwing his backpack over his shoulders when something made him stop. It was a glimpse of a familiar face.

Walt turned in a slow circle and then stopped again. Standing about 25 yards to what had been his left was a man in a dark suit and a tie. He looked like he could be one of the school administrators or a businessman on his way back to his office, but he wasn't. Walt remembered seeing that face around The Others' enclave, talking with Ms. Klugh and Tom. He often saw him walking around the camp with Ben, even deeper in conversation with him than with the rest. Walt had never talked with him, but he wasn't afraid of him either. He went up to him and squinted.

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to ask you a question," Richard Alpert said. "Would you like to go back to the island?"

Richard hadn't known what to expect, and was a little surprised and relieved when Walt's face broke open in a huge smile and he nodded. "Are you sure?" Richard asked and extended one arm back and away from them both. "Because if you're not, I'll go and we'll never bother you again."

"No," Walt cut him off. "I'm sure. Is my dad…"

"Your dad passed on but he's still on the island. Do you know what I mean Walt? Does that make sense to you?" Walt nodded, and though his eyes showed his sadness at the news he took it calmly. It was as if he sort of already knew. "Just because he's passed on doesn't mean you can't help him. And you can help your friends too. There's important work we need you to do."

"Can I call my grandmother from there, and let her know I'm okay?" Walt asked it so abruptly that Richard looked taken aback but then he smiled.

"Actually, I think you probably can."

"Then let's get going," was all Walt had to say.

Now, 76 hours later, he was back and sitting on the swing set in the yard of the barracks pushing himself slowly backward and forward with his feet. It was close to midnight, and he'd already tried and failed to go to sleep once.

He had gotten up, thrown his clothes back on and left his bedroom in the bungalow he would be sharing with Rose and Bernard. It was way too quiet in there, with Bernard recovering from surgery in The Staff station and Rose by his side. Walt knew there was no way he'd fall asleep for hours more, so why lay there?

Now he was breathing in the night air, picking up the smell of a campfire close by and feeling absolutely, perfectly at home. Part of him wanted to laugh with relief, part wanted to cry. Instead, he looked straight up and stared at the thousands of stars in the black night sky. He'd forgotten what the sky really looked like, after three years in New York City. Then he closed his eyes and decided to stop thinking about it all and just feel it instead. He focused on the feeling of being here, letting his mind drift both down into the ground below him and up toward those stars at the same time.

Although his backside stayed on the swing, he felt his senses sailing away from it, first to the trees nearby and then up and up and up until he could see the barracks below him, then the outline of the entire island. The ocean surrounding it was several shades of deep blue with brilliant silver bands rising and falling under a nearly full moon.

Then he picked them out: Kate, Hurley and Richard sitting around a campfire about a tenth of a mile away. He let his awareness drift over to them. They were passing time, waiting for Ben and Desmond. He sensed they were going to talk out the differences and conflicts he had sort of smelled going on between everyone on their walk home but for now, they were just chatting. Kate was asking Richard questions about his life on the island before they'd all arrived and Richard was answering slowly, thoughtfully. Walt knew their power struggles weren't his problem to fix, but he wondered how it would all go.

He hovered over them for a moment more and then drifted back toward the barracks. He saw Ben walking, saw him stop by the gazebo where the pretty Doctor Annie was sitting on one of the rails and writing in her journal. She stopped and looked at Ben but it was like she was looking at him and through him at the same time.

"Annie," Ben said and stopped. "It seems to be a night for coming clean, so I'll tell you this up front: I'm going to ask Hurley to check closely into your background. If what you told me is true, if you came here on your own and your motives are good then I'll be the happiest person on the island. If not, well, you should tell someone now and not later, maybe Hurley if not me. And I let my anger get the better of me earlier. I'm sorry."

Annie locked eyes with Ben for five full seconds and then went back to her journal without a word. Ben walked on to join Hurley at the campfire.

Walt could feel something deeper than disappointment radiating from Annie, and the weight of it nearly dragged him down to the ground. He let it go, slowly, and wandered in his mind to The Staff. He could feel but not see Bernard inside lying on a cot. Rose and Penny were sitting on either side of him and Desmond was just leaving to join the group at the campfire. Walt wasn't worried. He knew it would take time, but Bernard would be okay. He wasn't sure why he was sure, but he was.

Then, out of nowhere, something intruded on his wandering thoughts. Walt couldn't tell if he'd just noticed it, or it had just spotted him but whatever it was felt like a thousand magnets pulling him toward it and sounded like the low hissing the ocean made when it went all flat and calm before a storm.

Then he was there, hovering over the Weather Vane, the first hatch he'd ever actually seen on the island. He dropped slowly down, and it wasn't until his feet touched the ground that he realized it wasn't just in his mind now: He was there, without ever having taken a step between the swing set and the floor under his feet.

It wasn't the first time Walt had shown up somewhere he wasn't supposed to be, but it was the first time it had happened in a long time - since back when the Others were holding him hostage. The stress of his own kidnapping back then had sent him hurtling around the island in search of his father. He'd only found Shannon, Vincent and Sayid and couldn't maintain his telekinetic travels for any more than a minute or so at a time. Today, though, it was much easier for some reason.

Walt looked around, and saw the most amazing room full of banks of computers and monitors. There was a thrumming sound that made it feel like the whole place was alive. In the middle of the room was a platform about a foot and a half high made of metal and of silver tiles. He thought it looked like a transporter pad on the Starship Enterprise and that made him laugh out loud – until he realized that while it was clearly not that, it was probably some sort of means of transportation. He felt he wouldn't need anyone to push and levers or turn any dials to use it, though.

Walt went to the platform and stood there for a second. The thrumming sound wasn't so strong on the platform, it was like some sort of wall of energy was around it, and although it was part of the room it was separate from the room too.

He followed the same impulse he had when he was sitting on the swing. He let his mind move in every direction he could feel to let it wander, until all sound faded slowly out and then the room washed away too. Even though his eyes were wide open, he was absolutely nowhere for a second: No sounds, no smells, no air temperature, no anything.

It was just starting to reach the point of freaking him out when the nothingness stopped, and melted away just like the Weather Vane station had before it. He was standing near the water on the beach, their beach. The sun was out, shining on the tents. He knew those shelters, could even recognize the shape of Kate's tent versus Hurley's, spotted Sawyer's lean-to with its lawn chair, which sat empty right now. But the shelters were not in the same places. Some of them were further away than they "should be," others were facing in directions that were different. The camp looked a little bigger, and the small graveyard with its two graves was much further west, so far he could barely see the crosses where Boone and Scott lay. He saw a third cross, and wondered whose it was. He realized there were a lot of questions he'd have to ask Hurley.

And he could see familiar faces. They were about 200 yards away from him, close enough for him to recognize them, but not so close that they spotted him standing there. Rose was in the pantry, cutting up fruit and talking with Claire; John Locke sat on a log, twisting an old shirt around a tree branch to make a fresh torch. Neil was throwing a tennis ball for Vincent.

For a moment, Walt was afraid to breathe, afraid it'd all go away. Then he started running, headed toward Vincent, looking around for his father, and he only stopped when it hit him: These were his people, his friends, but they were not his people. This was not his past, this was some place else and just because it looked the same didn't mean it was at all.

"Walt?" He looked back and saw Charlie standing there, his jeans rolled up to his calves he walked on the edge of the water. He was carrying baby Aaron in a blanket, seemingly on his way back to camp after a few minutes of peace and quiet. Walt wondered why there was such a look of stunned confusion, almost horror on Charlie's face until he remembered: Charlie was seeing a 14-year-old where he expected a 10-year-old, and was unable to really grasp what he was seeing as Walt was right now.

"What are you doing here by yourself? Where's your dad? Have you seen Kate or Jack or Sawyer?" When Walt just stood there, mute, Charlie looked up the beach and yelled loudly for Hurley. Walt saw Hurley's head turn their way.

Walt wanted to tell Charlie it was okay, it was just him, he could explain, but suddenly it was all too much and he had no idea what to do. He wanted to run, but felt frozen.

Then, in the time than it would have taken for him to pull in a deep breath and bolt, he was back at the barracks lying on the ground under the swings. It was the dead of night again.

Walt sat up, and felt the same feeling he had just minutes before: Half of him wanting to laugh and half wanting to cry. He knew, now, at least a tiny bit about this important job that Richard had brought him back here to do, and what it might involve. He had come back hoping for a simple life on the island, but he realized that wasn't something he was likely to have- at least not for awhile.


	16. Just Because You're Paranoid

**December 8th, 2007**

**Island Time: 9am L.A. Time: 6pm**

**The morning after Walt's return to the island**

**30 hours after Miles officially joined Hurley's security team**

Walt dreamed he was going through a car wash, sitting in the passenger's seat with the window opened. Every so often, one of the long fabric wipers flopped in through the window and slapped him gently, lovingly in the face. Then, he remembered that car washes don't generally bark and whimper and paw at you.

"Vincent!" Walt threw his arms around his dog, who gave one more bark and then lay down flat with his head on Walt's shoulder, one paw over his chest. Anyone observing would have a hard time telling which was happier to see the other. Walt was laughing out loud. Vincent's tail was drumming a steady, loud beat on the covers and he was yelping so much it sounded like he was trying to tell Walt a story, which actually, he was.

Walt heard a chuckle, and raised his head enough to see Hurley in the doorway.

"You got in late enough last night," Hurley said, "I figured I'd wait until morning to bring him by."

"I was afraid to ask about him," Walt said. "I was afraid he was gone, too."

The smile in Hurley's eyes dimmed a touch. He realized how quickly Walt had picked up on the fact that only a few familiar faces were left on the island. He didn't say anything back- there'd be time to get into it later.

"Can I take him with me? I mean, on our training?" Walt asked and Hurley nodded.

"We're going to keep it simple today. Richard will be working with you and Kate, and Vincent can go too. Important stuff first, though- time for breakfast."

They left Walt's room in Rose and Bernard's place and walked to the picnic table closest to the gazebo. Annie was just leaving, walking back to The Staff. She gave them both a wave and Hurley a high five on the way by. Kate, Penny and Richard were sitting at the table in various stages of finishing breakfast or starting on coffee. Walt sat next to Kate with a silent smile and she grinned sideways at him and reached over and hugged him so close he started laughing. Vincent curled up at his feet, which was pretty much as far away as he would get from him for a while.

"Kate and I were just talking," Richard said quietly to Hurley, "About whether we should head straight for the Weather Vane or just do some basic training closer to home."

"Maybe better if they walk before they run," Hurley answered, reaching for the Dharma Raisin Bran. "And hey, on another topic entirely – did you and Frank shut down the Dharma food drop site in Guam?"

Richard just nodded.

"Did you take care of those guys who were working there all those years?"

Another nod. "They're financially set. They can do anything they want with their retirement," was all Richard said about that. "The food drops will keep coming, but from another location. We need the Guam site for our work. It's one of the places where the Weather Vane interfaces with all the other worlds it's linked to. Eloise set up a whole new food distribution chain for us. No more Dharma labels on the supplies after this."

"So…" Hurley mused. "You knew Eloise when she was 17, and you knew her when she was 37, and you know her now." He looked at Richard with a bit of a squint. "Is that weird for you? Was she hot when she was younger? I'm thinking she was." Hurley saw that Richard was looking at him like he had two heads. Richard started to say something in reply, stopped, shook his head, opened his mouth to start again and was permanently interrupted.

All at once they heard someone yelling Hurley's name, and Desmond was running in. He'd been at the Flame checking in with the Lamp Post. Hurley saw the look on his face, and was concerned about what he'd hear next.

"Claire," Desmond got the name out, waving one hand in the air as he caught his breath. "She's gone," he said. "And Sawyer… he's hurt. You have to come to the Flame, Miles needs to talk with you immediately."

Hurley realized his formerly peaceable kingdom was under attack from two fronts now, neither of which he felt he had any kind of handle on.

**December 8th, 2007**

**L.A. Time: 4pm Island Time: 7am**

**-Living room, 42 Panorama Crest**

Sawyer tried to sit up, but it felt like three elephants were pinning his chest down while the other two sat on his knees. He settled for lifting his head just a bit, and saw an IV stand to his right, a tube running down from it to his bare arm. He wondered how it was he'd ended up on the living room couch wearing nothing but his pants and barely able to focus his eyes.

He got a sense of several people in the room, some of them tending him, some standing near Miles a few feet away. Miles was pacing, talking on a landline with, he figured, Eloise.

"She is GONE," Miles was yelling, "I just got back…. I was only away for an hour. There was blood all over the driveway, I just washed it down the gutter. They shot Sawyer, too. Not with bullets- they pumped him full of something not good. He's okay, I think, your goons brought some EMTs by and they got him stable. I don't know… I don't know about Claire, I really don't think drug darts would leave that much blood on the ground. It's gotta be bad, Eloise…."

Sawyer put all his energy into focusing on what Miles would say next, but there wasn't enough left in him even to listen, and he watched the room go grey and then black.

**December 8th, 2007**

**Island Time: 6am L.A. time: 3pm**

**-Driveway, 42 Panorama Crest**

"Claire, no… don't! C'mon, stop it!" Sawyer tried to get his hands on one of her shoulders or the other, or even an arm around her waist but she kept wrestling away from him like a person possessed. He couldn't believe such a little girl could be so hard to get a grip on. He grabbed again for the keys in her hand but she threw that arm and then her whole self around in a circle, and made it, stumbling to Kate's car, opening the driver's side door and screaming at him to let her alone.

"I have had ENOUGH," she pointed at him, at the house, waved her arm around as if pointing out the whole block. "I'm going to the police."

"And tell them what, exactly?" Sawyer asked plainly, in an even tone. Claire calmed down, then, leaned against the open car door and sobbed lightly, shaking her head.

Two minutes before, Sawyer had broken the news that her mother Carole and her son Aaron had gone out yesterday morning for a two hour shopping trip, and that he couldn't get them on the phone. He explained that while he hoped it was all a big misunderstanding, he had come to the conclusion it was time to tell her they were pretty much probably missing.

"Claire, let Miles and me handle this," Sawyer tried to reason with her one more time. "We'll find them. If you go to anyone now… it's only going to raise a ton of questions none of us can answer."

He almost had her. Claire stood there crying silently, shaking her head, the upper half of her folding down just a touch toward the open car door she was leaning on. Sawyer started to walk toward her but that broke the spell. Claire stepped back as if to get in the car, but she never got a chance.

It all happened in five seconds that felt like two minutes. Sawyer heard several familiar popping sounds and saw Claire look up at him abruptly, her eyes horrified blue circles. In the split second between when she was shot and when she fell, he got a picture in his head of her in the days after the crash, heavily pregnant, smiling moodily, walking along the surf. The images of her then and her now overlapped in his brain and in his eyes as he watched her fall to the ground with a muffled shriek.

He never heard the darts that hit him a second and a half later. He felt a pinging sensation on the right side of his neck and dead center in his chest, one after the other. He pulled the second dart out, looked at it, and fell, too.

Sawyer wasn't out cold, and rallied enough to get his hands under himself, get up and lunge toward the door of Kate's house. He knew this was a race he was in, and that whoever was behind those darts was already running in his direction. He caught a glimpse of them as he bolted inside and fell into the hallway, slamming the door shut. He punched in the code for the home security system. It was the last thing he remembered before he collapsed.

**December 8th, 2007**

**Island Time: 5am L.A. time: 2pm**

**-Driveway, 42 Panorama Crest**

Miles left Kate's, on his way to lock up his business and tie up some loose ends. He hoped he'd convinced Sawyer to wait until he got back to talk with Claire.

Miles was distracted with all that had been going on, and it was only his second time at Kate's house. That's the only way to explain why an experienced PI didn't notice the dark blue van parked across the street and two houses down.

Miles got in his car and drove away, never catching that there were three people in the van. Two of them were listening intently to the conversations going on inside Kate's house. The other was on the phone, suggesting to the California Parole Board that they might want to send Ms. Austen's counselor around to see if his client was actually sticking to the rules of her probation and staying put. And on the dashboard of the van, he might have seen one of several old-school binders full of rules and regulations – each with an eight-sided logo on the front, a perfect circle of broken and solid lines, and in the middle of those lines an icon shaped like a Weather Vane.


	17. Return of the DI

Sawyer woke up in his basement room at Kate's and looked left and right at his arms. No IVs in them, a good sign. He closed his eyes and realized he felt a little wiped but not anywhere on the verge of slipping under again.

"Mr. Ford?"

Then he was halfway to his feet and looking for a weapon, when he saw the kid in pinstriped suit pants and a white shirt across the room. He had a serious frown on his face, a gun in one hand and the other in the air as if to say all was well. He was crouching over the folding chair he'd been sitting in a moment ago, his suit coat draped over the back. Sawyer realized he was positioned in the ideal place to defend them both from the door headed upstairs, and the thin window to the outside world that ran along the opposite wall close to the ceiling.

"You an Other?" Sawyer fell back on the bed.

"Yes, " The kid sat down again. "Technically so are you now, sir. Ms. Hawking assigned me to guard you while Mr. Straume is away."

He guessed Miles was looking for clues in the attack that took down Claire and rendered him unconscious for… how long?

"His name is Miles," Sawyer said, getting to his feet slowly this time and rummaging through a dresser. "And you can call me Sawyer."

"But they told me you go by James Ford again."

He's worried about precision and accuracy and correctness, this one is, Sawyer thought. A lot too much. One corner of his mouth turned up in a mildly amused smile at the discomfort on the kid's face.

"That is my name. But although you may be guarding my life, Chipper, you ain't close enough to my friend to call me James. And I won't be called Mr. Ford," He pulled a plain grey T- shirt and some jeans out of the dresser and walked to the bathroom. "So we'll go with Sawyer. I'm used to it."

Ten minutes later he walked back into the main room.

"My name is Evan." The kid said. "And we're supposed to address people our seniors as Mr. and Ms., it's part of the training." Evan had short, clipped reddish hair that would have a wavy curl to it if allowed to grow out. He was an inch short of what you'd call really, really tall, and thin for his frame. He looked to be about 22 years old.

"You a temple Other or a jungle Other… or what?" Sawyer asked. "And what's with the suit you're wearing? The guys who came from 'headquarters' a couple of days ago were suited up too."

"I don't know what you mean exactly," Evan said, "But all of us in the sciences or on the business end of things off -island wear them. Plus all the trainers and trainees."

"Sciences?" Sawyer asked, sitting on the edge of the bed and putting on a pair of shoes.

"Heuristics, telekinesis, the biosciences," Evan said.

"As in Mittelos Biosciences?" Sawyer interrupted him. "Corporate fronts, like the one they used to con Juliet into going to the island."

The kid started to say something back, stopped.

"I shouldn't get into politics."

Sawyer laughed dryly and pulled himself slowly to standing. The room went a little pixelated before he was fully on his feet, and he realized that even though he felt better, he wasn't entirely over whatever he'd been shot full of.

"I grasp the idea of formal wear for business typhoons," Sawyer said. "But why the trainees?"

"Most of us are pretty heavily armed to protect whomever we're assigned to," Evan said. Sawyer just shot him a questioning look. "The suit is to make people feel comfortable near us. When you see a guy with a fifty dollar haircut and a three piece suit, do you expect him to pull a gun on you or lob a bomb at your car?"

He had a point, but Sawyer wasn't going to just give it to him.

"Well I feel safer already, just admiring that tie!" Sawyer started up the stairs to the living room, something close to a full smile crossing his face as he saw a strong wave of annoyance on Evan's.

"We shouldn't go anywhere. You've barely been conscious for a quarter of an hour."

"How do you know I'm planning to go anywhere?"

"I'm thinking you want to go to the Lamp Post and bitch Ms. Hawking out."

Sawyer already had the car keys in his hands and was grabbing a jacket. He just shot him a shrug, and picked up a couple of apples and a bottle of water to take with them.

"Bitch out," Sawyer said. "Really?"

"Easily angered and prone to violent outbursts at things he can't control. That's what your file says."

"Fantastic," Sawyer headed for the front door. "You all have time to build a file but not to figure out that maybe someone wanted to kidnap me and kill Claire."

"No one realized a threat was so imminent. You shouldn't blame yourself. And we don't know yet that Claire is dead."

Sawyer had been about to reach for the door to open it, but he stopped flat and a second later kicked it so hard the paint chipped and one of the hinges actually squeaked. His eyes teared over at the pain in his foot and he hoped he hadn't added a broken bone to his week.

'Things he can't control…' Sawyer thought. There had been a lot of those, lately. He got a flashback of the look of horror on Claire's face just before she fell, shot out of nowhere as she stood sobbing near Kate's car. He shook it off, but had to stand there a couple more seconds staring at the door before he dared to talk again.

"Tell me, Evan," Sawyer opened it and stepped out. "Who is it I talk to, to have you replaced as my bodyguard?"

"Probably Ms. Hawking," Evan said, and it was his turn to smile just a touch at Sawyer's annoyance. "But you shouldn't. I'm very good at security. And I have an analytical nature, I can help you."

"Yeah, well you can plead your case on the way," Sawyer said. "First get your cell phone and call Miles. Tell him to meet us at the Lamp Post."

****88888888***************16**&&&****

Ben, Hurley, Richard, Kate and Walt were a little more than a mile from the barracks, half way between where they lived and the Weather Vane station that sat dead center of the island. Richard was carrying a duffel bag full of small traffic cones they had found in one of the bungalow basements, remnants of a Dharma physical fitness obstacle course as far as anyone could guess. He was tossing them out in a zigzag pattern – some of them close by, others many yards out and some barely in sight.

While Richard was setting up for Walt's first training session, Kate and Walt played fetch with Vincent. The two of them were throwing sticks at the same time, and giggling as Vincent decided which one to chase first. He generally picked the one Walt threw but every so often he's run for Kate's stick first, and they laughed all the harder in appreciation of his humoring her.

"I have something to apologize for," Ben said to Hurley. They were sitting on a fallen tree nearby, watching the preparations. "When that light flashed around the island five times the night they all left on the plane, you asked me if I knew what that was about. I suspected Richard had set off the Weather Vane. But I didn't know for sure," Ben said, setting down the rifle he'd been carrying. "No one knew for sure what it'd do if we set it off. So I lied. I wasn't ready to tell you the truth about what the Dharma hatches were all leading up to. It's so complicated, isn't it?"

Ben looked at Hurley, relieved to have the truth out, and was surprised when Hurley said nothing and barely shrugged. "I thought you'd be concerned that I lied to you so soon after becoming your Number Two."

"I don't broadcast it every time the island tells me something," Hurley said, "But it's happening pretty much every day. I know Kate's thinking one of you will try to screw me over. And I know you and Richard have had your issues with each other over the decades," Hurley shrugged again and looked back toward Kate and Walt. "And hell, neither of you is a saint, I know what you've both done in the past, right? But I still know we're all good, all of us. It's everyone **but**us that we have to worry about."

"What exactly did you see?" Ben asked after awhile.

"I saw you and me and Richard working together here against a common enemy," Hurley shook his head, looking almost wistful about something that was decades from actually happening. "You and Richard were both very…." he looked back at Ben, "Grey. As in 75ish. So, I'm worried about some things, Ben, but I'm not worried about either of you."

Hurley had never seen such a simple, happy smile cross Ben's face before. It was like he was relieved of a weight he just now realized he didn't have to carry. Then the smile disappeared entirely.

"You're not… just saying that?" Ben asked, and Hurley broke out laughing so hard that Kate and Walt stopped their game and Vincent ran over to him, tail wagging furiously.

"I KNEW you were going to ask me that," Hurley said, scratching Vincent's head. "No, Ben, I'm not just saying that. I'll never lie to you," he said, looking him in the eye, "And you'll never lie to me again, right?"

"Absolutely," Ben said. Hurley was the only one of the two of them who was sure at that moment that it was a fact.

A few minutes later, they took their leave. Hurley wanted to see how Bernard was doing, and he asked Ben to head for The Flame to check in with Desmond and Penny. Everyone agreed to meet back up at the barracks in a few hours.

****88888888***************16**&&&****

"Here's where we start," Richard said, standing next to Walt, a hand on his shoulder and the other pointing toward one of the cones about 15 yards off. Kate stood nearby, observing.

"Focus on that one. Think about the fact that you're here and it is there," Richard said, pointing and stepping back. "And now think about standing next to it… without moving."

Walt nodded confidently, like 'piece of cake' and closed his eyes. Kate didn't think she had closed hers, but suddenly Walt was gone, until she looked over toward the traffic cone and there he was.

"Woah," Kate muttered. Richard looked at her with a smile.

"Well done, Walt." He said, and walked toward Kate.

"Can you do that, too?" Kate asked Richard, and he nodded.

"But only about twice the distance he just covered, tops," Richard said. "That's how the Others could appear right in front of you or suddenly be gone."

"Telekinesis?" Kate asked, wrinkling her nose in doubt, but Richard nodded.

"That's one word for it. When we disappeared out of plain sight, we weren't all that far away, just far enough to get to safety without being heard or leaving a trail. For most of us, it's hard work, it's draining. But for Walt," Richard shook his head. "It's like breathing in and out. I think we'll all be surprised at what he can do. Eventually, he may not need the Weather Vane at all to travel between worlds. Imagine that."

He started to turn to re-direct Walt to his next 'target' when Vincent interrupted everything, bolting from Kate's side and running from Richard to Walt to Kate over and over again, his tail down between his legs and a low growl coming out of his throat. They all looked at each other.

"What's happening?" Walt asked, and Richard raised a hand as if telling them all to listen. They heard a distant sound of feet running through the brush, headed their way. Suddenly Vincent zeroed in on the sound and ran howling straight at it.

"Let's go!" Richard grabbed Walt's hand, bolting in the other direction back toward the barracks, Kate following. Walt had no idea what was going on, and tried to break away to go back for Vincent, but Richard wouldn't let go and dragged him along.

He and Kate were both thinking about that sole survivor of the band of "Freighter People" who had shown up from another world, accidental travelers through the looking glass otherwise known as the Weather Vane, the same crew that had shot Bernard. They knew it was him they were running from and they could hear him gaining ground behind them. None of them was armed, and Kate and Richard both realized their mistake. It was the last day anyone would go out into the jungle unarmed for a long time.

Richard kept running but yelled to Walt.

"We'll catch up. Go home, warn Hurley. Tell him we need help. Now!" Walt shook his head, still running, looking at Richard and over to Kate and then back toward where Vincent had disappeared. When he looked back, Kate was nodding at him.

"Okay," Walt said, and then he was gone.

Richard and Kate nearly stumbled in shock even though they knew it was coming, but they kept running. It would be at least 20 minutes at full speed before they'd be home and near help, and they heard the feet behind them gaining ground on them. Richard looked back at Kate and saw it in her eyes: Both knew there was no way they'd out run him. At that moment, Richard stopped dead and threw an arm around her, spinning them both to the left. "Hold on," was all he said, and Kate felt her feet leave the ground.

When her eyes were able to focus again they were lying fifty yards away. Kate pushed herself up, her legs tangled up with Richard's, one hand on his shoulder and the other on the ground to his right. She turned her head to look back just in time to see the brush moving as the intruder from another world bolted by yards away from them – and kept going.

"You're going to have to teach me that, too," Kate whispered. Richard just nodded, then held one finger up to his lips, sitting up. He got up and started walking, motioning for Kate to follow.

"We're better to walk than run," his face was near her ear as he said it, but still he said it so softly she barely heard him, "Slow and sure home, okay?"

Kate nodded and they began picking their way through the jungle, not making a sound. Minutes passed and then a quarter hour, then half an hour. Just when they both began to feel like there was hope, Richard stopped. Kate looked at him and saw it: The disappointment, almost despair on his face as he raised his hands in surrender. She heard a click, and saw the camouflaged figure step directly in front of them. He'd been following them.

"Where am I?" He asked them, "And why should I let you live?"

"You're on a different iteration of the island than the one you know, Omar," Richard said, recognizing Martin Keamy's lead man, "And we have no conflict with you."

"Wrong answer," Omar said, and started to aim the weapon at Richard, but stopped when they all heard rustling sounds behind them. Omar spun around and pointed again as Vincent came charging through the grass toward him, growling furiously, his teeth showing.

Kate screamed a loud "No!" as Omar began firing toward Vincent, and then gasped with a combination of shock and relief when Omar fell to the ground, taken down by a single bullet fired into his head from behind them.

Vincent walked circles around the body, still growling softly. Kate could see the orange blood flowing from Omar's head, the same, unreal sight Penny and Desmond described the night Bernard was shot. She saw it, but found it hard to grasp.

Kate and Richard turned to see Ben behind them, looking pale, the rifle in his hand pointed to the ground.

"I was on my way to the Flame," Ben said, "And I remembered you were unarmed."

Richard nodded. Kate bent forward, her hands on her knees as if to give them some support. She was laughing and crying a little at the same time.

"Ben, for the first time in my life," she said, "I am so happy to see you."

"Well, it's said under some duress," Ben's face was straight but his eyes were dancing. "But I'll take it."

****88888888***************16**&&&****

A few hours later, 16 of the 17 members of the camp were gathered, sitting around several fires they'd started on the beach closest to the barracks. Even Rose had left Bernard's side for an hour, to hear what Hurley would have to say to them.

Hurley started with the good news, that the last of the murderous freighter people from another world was dead. But then came word about Aaron's disappearance and the attack on Claire and Sawyer, and his heart sank a little when he heard the gasps from Rose, Walt, Frank and a few of the rest.

"When I took on this job," Hurley said, "I kind of hoped we'd have a few years of peace and quiet before we faced any new threats. But we only got three months. Now we're under attack here and at home so tomorrow, a few of us are staying on the island but a lot of you are going. We need engineers who can rewire everything so we don't have to run to the Flame to communicate with the world. We need a security team. If we don't get serious and get help, we're going to get wiped out," he said. "So Frank and Richard will head for Guam and get ready to ferry people here—new recruits that Eloise will line up. Penny and Desmond, we'll need you and your crew to go help bring people here too."

He looked around and could see doubt and fear crossing some eyes.

"Today we're seventeen of us, next week we'll be thirty… and soon we'll be dealing with traffic jams." That got a laugh. "But we'll be ready for anything. I know we can do this, and I really think once we knock down these challenges we'll have the upper hand, and we can both protect the island and have a good life here. No, not a good life- the best."

After a few questions and some side conversations, Hurley, Richard and Ben walked back toward the Flame to make one more call to Eloise for the night. The sun was just down entirely and a full moon was lighting their way.

"Well done, Hurley," Richard said.

"It was no 'live together die alone,'" Hurley shrugged. "But I think I got my point across. Richard," he motioned for them both to stop. "I know we don't know yet, but what does your gut tell you? Who attacked Claire and Sawyer?"

Richard and Ben looked at each other, and Ben nodded as if to say he knew what he'd hear next and that he concurred.

"It's been 15 years and two weeks since we led the purge on the Dharma Initiative," Richard said. "We killed every one of them here, and that crippled them. But we knew it didn't mean the organization was gone, or that they wouldn't ever try to come back. Now we've set off the Weather Vane, their ultimate station, and I'm pretty sure they know it. So my best guess is that they're rallying. They still believe this place is theirs. And they're coming back for it."


	18. Island Exodus, with Two Twists

It only hit Sawyer what bad shape he must have been in the past couple of days when he saw Miles' reaction in the Lamp Post station parking lot. Miles was just walking out the door of the church and he looked a little too relieved, glancing up and shaking his head like 'thank God that's over.'

"Glad to see you on your feet," Miles said, waiting for them at the door. He didn't bother chewing Sawyer out for leaving the house so soon, or chiding Evan for not trying to convince him to stay there.

"Know anything yet?" Sawyer wasn't wasting time either.

"Not as much as I'd like, but whoever attacked you and Claire had probably been watching the house for about a week, maybe ten days. That's how long the vans had been showing up."

"What vans?" Sawyer asked.

"One deep blue, one lighter, the other green. Some of your neighbors said it was a remodeling firm and others saw a plumber's truck. They all thought someone was having work done on their place."

"And we've been so busy worrying about moving on that we didn't even notice."

"I know you've only been awake an hour or three, but have you asked yourself why they attacked Claire so viciously but tried to take you alive?" Miles asked.

"All the way here," Sawyer said.

"I think they were listening in on what was going on in the house. They knew she was the loosest cannon in the army," Miles said, "And they don't want anyone hearing about the island or finding it any more than Eloise's people do."

"Maybe I'm still half out of it, Sawyer said, "But I'm not with you yet."

"I know you're going to down there to demand an A to Z 'history of the Others,' but I think you'd better also ask Her Majesty what's left of our friends in jumpsuits."

"The D.I?" Sawyer asked, looking even more tired, more confused. His head started to ache, and it reminded him of the time jumps; the way they were left drained and hurting every time.

"Yeah. I know it's a lot right now, but listen: She and Hurley and Ben have been talking a lot. Whenever I wasn't watching you to make sure you were still breathing, I was hanging out here listening to their Skype chats." He pointed to the church. "I'm pretty sure whoever did this is Dharma. Somehow, Ben and Richard's latest power struggle woke up whatever's left of them. I think they wanted a hostage valuable enough to Hurley to get what they're after: Directions back to the island."

"Well hell," Sawyer waved his arms around. "If that's what they want, why not storm the castle, knock Eloise on her ass and take what they want? They afraid to piss off an elderly lady and a handful of clergy?"

"Um, there's a little more security here than you realize," Evan said simply and stopped. Sawyer nodded for him to go on. "No one aiming to get into the Lamp Post with bad intent would get their hand on the first door knob with their heads still on their shoulders."

"Great," Sawyer said, "You'll have our backs a little better from here on, too, right?" Evan didn't bother with much more than a nod, knowing the question was rhetorical, frustration more than anything. Anger over things he couldn't control.

"One more question," Sawyer looked at Miles. "We've all figured out what they're after, so there goes the element of surprise. How much time you suppose that buys us?

"They'll keep trying until they get they want," Miles said. "I think then they'll either go in so heavy they make the freighter people look like the Peace Corps or so stealth that all our people are dead at their feet before we even know they're there."

Sawyer's head went down. Miles knew he was picturing Hurley and Kate, Walt.

"You two might as well go home. I have a feeling this will take time."

"Evan will stay. I'm going to go see if there's any more on Claire's mom and Aaron, Eloise has people looking for them too. I was hoping she didn't give up on Claire and take off. Now I'm hoping she did."

"You and me too," Sawyer said, heading in to the Lamp Post.

"On three," Penny said, and counted down, she and Heinrick and Mathias picking up a net heavy with supplies, food and blankets and clothes, dragging it up the ramp onto The Searcher. She waved to Desmond, who was walking the deck with Charlie in his arms, watching over the preps as they got ready to hit the open seas.

Penny took the empty net back with her, aimed the zodiac raft for the island. She could see Rose waiting for her on the shore, and between the familiar face and the smell of the trees and the sea spray, she felt a stab, actually sorry to be leaving a place she'd never seen until a few weeks ago.

"Let me help you pack," Rose said, and they walked back toward the barracks, sharing the weight of the wiry Dharma food drop net between them. "I wish you and Charlie could stay, let Desmond and the guys help pick up our new arrivals."

"I was just thinking the same thing, Rose," Penny said, "But the three of us are a package deal. I warned Hurley that from the beginning."

"I know, and I certainly understand. When you get back, you may need to walk a little further than the next bungalow to visit us," Rose said, and nodded when Penny looked over at her with worried eyes. "What's going on here now- it's just what Bernard and I wanted to avoid. I think as soon as he's better, we'll head for our cabin. With all this new help, Hurley won't need us so much anyway."

"You know that's not how it works, Rose, they'll still need you," Penny said. "And you'll be safer a couple of walls away from us all than miles away. And Walt – anyone can see how much better he feels around you and Hurley and Kate than with anyone else."

"I know," Rose said. They were back at the camp now, walking by Ben, Hurley, Frank and Richard who were talking through next steps. "He's the one thing that might just keep us here. Either way, be careful – and get back here soon, okay?"

"We will," Penny said, "We have to. You know," she said as they went in the bungalow dedicated to food and supply storage. "After everything Des went through, I never dreamed we'd come back here willingly. Now, the island and our boat and all of you: That's home. Funny how things go, isn't it?"

"Yes, Rose said, setting out the net to fill it with one more load of food. "And not 'funny ha-ha' either."

Behind them, Ben and Richard had just left Hurley behind, headed for the Weather Vane. Frank was on his way to his plane, where he would wait for Richard to return so they could head for Guam. Negotiating those few little decisions had taken ten minutes of heated discussion, enough to wear Hurley out a little.

"I'm sure you'll understand, Richard," Ben had said in his chilliest tone, "Why I'm a little uncomfortable with you transporting me to the Lamp Post via a highly advanced technology none of us has any expertise with. Especially since you hijacked it, really."

"Ben, it's not a transporter, it's a Dharma station, don't be cute. And I've used it to travel to Guam and back several times now. I didn't stick the landing every time…." His left hand went unconsciously to his right shoulder. But I'll get you there in one piece. Why are you wasting time?"

"I have to agree with Richard here," Hurley said. "If the Weather Vane really can just shoot someone straight to the Lamp Post, you're the one we need there now. You and Eloise can get the engineers and the security people we need, you two know the money and the politics to make it happen. Get 'em to Guam and let Richard and Frank bring them here. Okay?"

It took another go–around or two and they were on their way. Hurley walked down to the shore, watched The Searcher bobbing on the water and just breathed in and out, wondering again how this had become his job. He was just zen-ing out a bit when he heard Annie's voice.

"I think I can help you," She said, and he looked left, saw her a few feet away, also looking out at The Searcher.

"You've been helping us since you got here," Hurley smiled, and she returned it, bowed her head slightly as a thank you.

"I think you need to send me stateside. If it's really Dharma that's after us, that attacked your people, then I might be able to track down just who they are and where they are. No, not might. I can. If I have to break my mom's arm to make it happen."

Hurley looked at her, a little agape.

"I told you my parents were Dharma, you know I've been very open about that. But I didn't tell you," she paused, "Where they were on the food chain. "My dad, Gerald - Richard and Ben killed him with the rest of the D.I. on the island in the Purge. My mom, her name is Karen. It's Karen DeGroot. She and my dad founded the Dharma Initiative. If any pieces of it exist, she knows about it. She might still be running it."

Hurley looked out at the Searcher, sighed, picked up the backpack at his feet and pulled out a walkie.

"Richard," he said, let go and listened to the squelch, waited for the return.

"Yes, I'm here."

"Get ready to zap Ben to California," Hurley said, "But don't send him yet. You have another passenger on the way."

While the rest of the group was making their preparations, Kate had taken Walt out to learn a little about tracking. It was a good way to keep him from all the hubbub, so soon after he'd just gotten there. Kate and Hurley agreed he didn't need that stress.

They had looked at the way grass bends when a shoe steps on it, when a foot steps on it, when a boar steps on it, and now they were just walking.

"Walt," she said, "I want to ask you some things about the Weather Vane station, about those other versions of the island. Do you mind?"

He shrugged a 'no' and she struggled with how to word her question.

"Do you know much about them yet? Are there any… is there one that's just like here? So much that anyone there would know us all?"

"I don't know for sure," Walt said. "I think that's what I'm going to learn more about when Richard comes back. The one I visited by accident my first night here sure felt the same. Different but the same, you know? I saw Charlie," he said, brightening. "And another Vincent. Charlie recognized me right away."

"Really?" Kate's heart was in her eyes, and he remembered that whatever these people were to him, they were all even more to each other in ways he still couldn't fully grasp.

"Yeah. He was carrying Aaron. Baby Aaron."

Kate's arm went around her waist as he said it and she gasped, and Walt felt bad then. He saw a fallen log nearby and sat, giving her an excuse to join him.

"Walt, do you think…" Kate said. "As you learn more, especially about that one place… could you share it with me? And not tell anyone?"

Walt looked up at her, contemplating her question.

"What if Hurley asks me straight out?" He said. "You don't want me to lie, do you?"

"Well, no," Kate said. "I don't want you to lie to him. But maybe only tell him if he asks if anyone's been poking around, okay?"

Walt nodded, sat watching her for a second, then had to say it.

"You know they're really other people. They're not us."

"That's just it, Walt," Kate said. "They're not us. But they are. And if we don't help them, they're going through all of this, too."

"And," she thought to herself, didn't say it out loud to him, "You never know when you're going to need a good doctor."


	19. Headed for MI with Foreshadowing

Sawyer punched in the security code and walked into Kate's house, headed straight for the refrigerator and grabbed a six-pack. He found Miles by the pool.

"There you are," Miles said, kept typing on his laptop. "Six hours in "Others School" with Ms. Hawking, huh? Do you think you really need a beer less than a day after you woke up from being just about dead?"

"Miles, after what I heard I need a bottle of vodka but I'll stick with a beer." Sawyer took one, handed Miles another. "You would not believe…." He stopped, looked around. "Where's Chipper?"

"Evan has taken over Claire's room," Miles said, set the computer on the ground. "He's retired for the night, probably in striped flannel pajamas. He has an app that can watch all the security cameras in entire house and receive text messages from us, isn't that super?"

Sawyer drank half of a beer while Miles was talking, sat back looking dazed.

"What the hell did she tell you?" Miles asked. "Let me rephrase that: What can you tell me about whatever the hell she told you?"

"You have no idea how big this group is, how much money is involved. They're all over the world." He saw the doubt on Miles face. "You yourself know half a dozen famous Others by name," Sawyer said. "It's the biggest cult no one has heard of."

"Seriously?"

"A US senator, one former presidential candidate, a star MLB pitcher who is maybe headed for New York, and horror novelist to be named later." Sawyer said, "Just for starters," and he finished his beer and picked up another. "Get this: Most of them are descended from Jacob."

"No way," Miles said, paused. "Ilana said he was like a father to her."

"She added some words to that sentence," Sawyer said. "He wasn't like a father to her, he was her father. Yeah," he went on at the shocked reaction that got. "So why did daddy let her blow up that way? Maybe he couldn't protect her anymore, being dead himself. Or maybe he was done with her. Who knows with these brutal freaking people? They make me look like the Dali Lama."

"We are in over our heads," Miles said, picking the laptop back up.

"Yes, we are. But we're going to hang in there as long as we have to in order to figure things out," Sawyer said. "What happened to Claire, and how to get Hurley and Kate past this threat they're facing. Then we are out of here. We're done, if it kills me."

"Not something I'd say lightly," Miles said. "And I wouldn't finish that beer, either, we have to go. I just got an email from Hurley. He's at the Flame. He says there's a woman named Annie DeGroot on the way to L.A. and we have to meet her and Ben at the airport and fly with her to Ann Arbor, Michigan."

"And that would be because?" Sawyer asked.

"She has substantial information that might help us figure out all of the above. Her parents: They weren't just Dharma, they started the DI. Her mom's still alive- and Annie is apparently ready to do whatever's necessary to get the information we need."

"Sounds like a lady we need to meet," Sawyer said, "Go get Chipper, I'll be waiting in the car."

"Annie, head up there with Ben," Richard said, pointing back while he poured over the computer console at the Weather Vane, working the operating system, making adjustments.

Ben was standing on the platform behind him, a knapsack with a couple of days' changes of clothes in it. Annie didn't hesitate, walked up to where he was standing with her own backpack on her shoulders.

"I'll drop you off at the Lamp Post, and I'm aiming for the far side of the parking lot. It's the most open, the least likely to be a problem. You should land in a field that's between the church and the next property, basically. But brace yourself, be ready to land at whatever angle you land at," Richard warned, turned back and saw it: Ben stone-faced, Annie a half a step from his left shoulder, facing him, looking at him with her heart in her eyes.

"I um…" Richard said. "I'll have you on the way in a second. Hold on."

Annie took it literally; wound the fingers of her right hand around Ben's left.

"I'm not going there to prove anything to you," Annie said quietly enough that Richard wouldn't have made it out. "I'm going for the island, and to help Hurley. But I hope, when it's done, you'll trust me again. Really… how much more should it take, Ben? I'm going home to kick my mom's ass for us all."

Ben looked at her, shook his head impatiently but didn't shake her hand off. Next thing they knew Richard was fading out of their sight, then the hatch, then the island, and then they were back in L.A.

"There they are," Sawyer stepped forward as Ben's SUV pulled up to the drop-off area near the LAX Delta terminal. Annie stepped out of the vehicle, reached her hand out to shake Sawyer's as Ben drove away.

"Hi, Mr. LeFleur, Annie DeGroot," she said. Sawyer gave off something between a humorless laugh and an exhale.

"Sawyer, please. You remember me? You were on the island in the seventies?" He asked.

"Yes, I remember you. You worked for Horace, you ran security," she said, smiling up at him, "I was twelve. I had a tiny crush on you."

"I'm sorry," he said, taking her backpack. "I don't remember you."

"I was just a kid. And I hung out a lot with Ben Linus," she said.

"Well, that would explain that, I avoided little Ben like the plague, it was too weird, knowing what was coming," Sawyer said, and then, as if out of the back of his mind it hit him he was being rude. "Meet Miles Straume, and Evan - your other new partners in crime."

"Hi, Miles," Annie shook his hand, reached back, "Hi Evan," and the four of them started walking toward the departures board to check out their flight.

"I'm assuming that they've already got us some hotel rooms lined up in Ann Arbor?" She asked, got a nod in return from Miles. "I'm thinking that won't be enough. Too public. We need an apartment, at least, maybe a house," she said. "In a quiet neighborhood. Let's try to get on that before we board the plane, please."

"Why?" Miles asked simply, but pulled out his cell phone.

"Just in case my mom won't buckle when I confront her," Annie said. "If that happens, we're going to be adding a fifth to the party. One that would draw some serious stares at a hotel."

"Why?" Sawyer asked as Miles dialed Eloise.

"Because… he'd be a hostage, and a hard one to hide."

Half an hour later, they were through security and boarding their plane. A few miles away from them, Ben and Eloise were sitting together in a pew in the church above the Lamp Post, staring forward at the alter with the candles blazing to their right, not saying much.

"You do know," Eloise broke the silence, "That once this crisis is over, you have to make damn sure those other worlds are shut off from ours?"

"You think?" Ben said simply, ironically, and Eloise smiled.

"We've all been running in so many direction lately, Ben, I don't know what anyone thinks. But I know that as much as those other worlds might offer some protection, redundancy, a place to hide, they also pose a threat. Who knows if your Oceanic 815 friends aren't already contemplating a way to use them to right some wrongs."

"Hell, I'm contemplating it," Ben said. "Imagine, if one of those worlds is entirely empty – no history, no Mother, no Jacob, just the island itself, ready for someone to lead. That would be the place you'd want to step in and run. Clean slate."

"Exactly," Eloise said. "If it's tempting you, it's tempting everyone. Let Richard do his little inventory with Walt, use those other worlds to all of our advantages until this crisis is over- then shut it down, no matter what that takes."

"Eloise, as always," Ben said, "We are on exactly the same page."


	20. Plan B

"How are my two favorite crew members doing?" Penny dropped onto the deck chair next to Desmond's, enjoying the hum of The Searcher's engines and the cool salt breeze. Charlie sat on Desmond's lap, flipping through a picture book full of animals.

"We're just lovely," Desmond leaned back to let the sun better hit his face. "Can the guys spare you for a bit?"

"Oh yes," Penny was sitting with her knees close to her, her feet on the chair. "We're well on our way. We'll be in Hawaii in three days."

She aimlessly played with Charlie's curls as he announced the various animals in his book in almost recognizable words, pointing at them for emphasis.

"Beer," Charlie said, laughing out loud, practically punching the book with his finger.

"Did he just say beer?"

"No, that was 'bear,'" Desmond looked down at the picture of the polar bear Charlie was still giggling over. He looked worried. "Of all the animals in the damn book, he would have to like the polar bear best."

"Come on now," Penny moved her hand from Charlie's curls to squeeze Desmond's shoulder. "He's only been on the island a few weeks, do you think he picked up the vibes of polar-bears-past by osmosis?"

"I know," Desmond said. "I know. I guess I'm thinking I wish we could stay in Oahu, and let the rest take our new visitors back with them."

"Sure," Penny said, "You're just going to step away and let Hurley deal with whatever is coming? Not likely. And besides, what if he's right, what if we get past this and have, say, decades of nothing but peace on the island? Beats commuting and paying taxes and pollution and tiresome neighbors, doesn't it?"

"When you put it that way…" Desmond said. "And Claire got pounced on right in the driveway of a nice neighborhood in California. Who knows what's next for any of us?"

"I've been thinking we should discuss something related to just that," Penny said. "We should agree, if anything does happen to one of us, or two of us – there won't be any self-flagellation like Sawyer put himself through after Juliet died. I think we'll both be more able to handle the stress of whatever is coming if we agree that if the worst happens, we grieve and move on."

"Oh God," Desmond put his head back in partially-mock misery, "Our son is obsessed with polar bears and you're talking the worst. It was such a good trip until just now, wasn't it, Charlie?"

They both laughed dryly, but Penny leaned toward him, kissed his mouth, sat back and locked eyes with him.

"Just promise," she said and he nodded.

"Okay," Desmond said it so soft it was almost a whisper. "I promise." There was no more laughing for a moment, and the simple depth of feeling with which he said it made her eyes sting and her throat tighten. "Now remind me," he said, to break the mood, "Who is it we are going to pick up, anyway? I was a little busy helping the guys when Hurley and Ben were giving you our instructions."

"A couple of 'gists' first," Penny said, "As in a psychologist and a cosmologist. They're both Others, and the cosmologist has been to the island before. Apparently he helped build this hatch that Richard and Ben and Hurley won't tell us much about."

"Do you really want to know much about it?" Desmond asked. "I think the less we are in on that piece of the puzzle, the better."

"And then we go to Guam," Penny went on, "and we pick up several electrical and IT engineers from Richard and Frank. Did I hear they're going to rebuild the Swan hatch?"

"No," Desmond said. "They're going to raze that site, no sense having a dangerous, tangled mass of metal and concrete lying there forever. The engineers are going to add some functionality to the Weather Vane, so it can become a tracking station along with whatever Richard and Walt are up to with it. Hurley doesn't want anyone going to the Looking Glass station anymore. He feels it's Charlie's resting place, it should be left alone."

"A wise decision," Penny said, and they were both quiet for a moment.

"I do have to admit," she said, "As much as I'm set on staying the course it is very weird to live in a place that's currently badly in need of a cosmologist on staff, isn't it?"

"My point exactly," Desmond grinned, handed her Charlie, flipped his chair back for a nap. "We should be back on the island in about ten days, love. And there'll be plenty of mysterious threads to pull at. Let's enjoy this little break from it while we can."

If you were a bird and you flew very high over The Searcher, you'd see nothing but blue sea for mile after mile, nothing between it and Hawaii, seemingly. If you were on a passenger plane, you'd be a little to high to pick it out on the water, and about an hour and a half later you'd also be too high up to see another ship: One that was slightly larger than The Searcher, slightly better equipped and manned, and headed in its general direction with one task: To find the way back to the island.

Walt, Hurley, Kate and Hurley's parents were sitting around the picnic tables having dinner, just a few yards from the gazebo at the barracks when David Reyes started clapping and Carmen gave a little cheer. The rest looked up and saw Rose and Bernard walking their way, Bernard leaning on Rose's arm and smiling, waving them off as if to say 'no big deal'.

"You're up!" Walt ran to them, helped Rose help Bernard the last bit of the way to the table. She went to make him up a dinner plate and Kate reached across the table, took Bernard's hand.

"Good to see you out of the Staff," she said.

"Yes, well, I'm finally feeling like I might make it," Bernard shrugged, "And with our doctor gone, not much sense lying in the hospital, is there?"

No one said anything about how long it had taken Bernard to recover even with the healing power of the island, or what that suggested about how badly he'd been hurt. Most of them were thinking it, though.

"And how are you doing, Kate?"

"I'm good," she squeezed his hand, let go, put her arm around her waist. "I'm so good, it scares me."

"What do you mean, dear?" Rose set Bernard's meal in front of him, and sat down next to Kate.

"Well, I'm not really even showing yet," Kate said, and Rose smiled, nodded.

"Yes you are, honey, you look like you swallowed a grapefruit."

Kate laughed, looked down and shrugged.

"Okay, so I'm just starting to show, but this morning, I swear I felt the baby move. That's about six weeks too early, isn't it?"

"I'm no expert," Rose said, "But I think you're right, it's at least several weeks too early. Sure you weren't imagining it?"

"Oh, I'm sure," Kate said. "I know it's going to sound crazy, but I have this instinctive feeling it's not going to take this baby 40 full weeks to arrive. And I'm worried- what if it comes right when we're under attack and we need every set of hands?"

"To be blunt," Bernard said, picking at his food, his appetite not really back yet. "Even if the baby arrives twice as fast as it should, that'd still be a little more than three months from now. We'll be really lucky if we have that long until they get here."

"Bernard!" Rose said it a little sharply, concerned with adding to everyone's worries.

"No, Rose, we might as well all be open about this and start facing it. Someone's coming, and probably sooner than later. Kate, my advice would be to start thinking about where you can go to protect yourself if the worst happens, and we lose."

Rose made a shocked sound of disapproval, but Kate nodded, straight-faced, looking over at where Walt and Vincent were playing a few yards away.

"Believe me, Bernard, I'm on it. I'm on it for all of us."

They dropped the topic then, and got on with dinner. Their little reunion helped them all forget it was just the seven of them on the island for now, made everyone feel far less alone. Hurley hit the storage room and dug out some bottles of wine and pomegranate juice for Kate and Walt. They sat and talked about nothing important the rest of the evening until long after the sun was down and four tiki torches were all that lit the yard.

In Ann Arbor, Sawyer was sitting in a rental car outside Annie's mother's house. She was inside trying to get her to spill whatever she knew about the Dharma Initiative, and the attack on Claire and Sawyer. Miles and Evan were getting groceries and setting things up at their new house for what they all figured would be at least a few days' stay.

No one thought making her mom crack, making her share whatever she knew about the Dharma Initiative at the turn of the 21st Century would be easy. But they all felt the pressure, knowing whatever they did or didn't find out could determine the fate of their friends and might lead to all they would ever know about what happened to Claire.

Sawyer had asked Annie a few questions after they dropped the guys off at a store. Why didn't her parents go by their real names on the island, why did they hide under assumed names, fake jobs?

She said they'd found that being famous for founding the DI got in the way of their main objective: Their research. And so they worked quietly, took turns splitting their time between the island and Ann Arbor. It wasn't much of a life for them or for her.

"That's why I related to Ben right away," Annie said, smiling sadly, looking to the right out her window as Sawyer drove. "We were both sort of orphaned, not literally but in practice. We were both pretty much on our own."

Sawyer looked at her, back at the road, didn't say anything.

He had wanted to go in with her, but Annie urged him not to: Save the new faces and the big threats in case she won't cooperate, she argued. So he waited as a half hour turned into three quarters of an hour. He was just thinking about getting out of the car to stretch when she came out.

Annie was half running from the house, tears on her face. Sawyer saw her mother standing in the open door behind her, frowning so hard it was really a glower. She had long blonde hair on the verge of turning white. For some illogical reason Sawyer expected her to be wearing a lab coat, but of course she wasn't, she was dressed in a sweater and slacks, looking like your average aging suburban mom. She watched Annie until she got to the car, and then she shut the door.

"Time for Plan B?" Sawyer asked, and Annie made a sound somewhere between a sob and a sardonic laugh. Sawyer had his hand on the car key, but waited to start it, giving her a minute to calm down. "And what is Plan B, by the way?" he asked.

"In just a second, you're going to think I'm out of my mind," Annie said. "But please remember, I'm not."

"Oookay," Saywer said, starting the car.

"We have to go kidnap an Orangutan." Annie said.


	21. From Guam toMI to what Kate tells Jack

**Others' Warehouse and Landing Strip- Guam**

Richard Alpert arrived pretty much where you'd want to if you were falling there from the Weather Vane hatch and were worried about the integrity of your bones: Dead center into the Others' huge warehouse on Guam, in a very wide-open area. He was glad to see his aim was improving. He lay there for a minute, recovering his sense of which way was up and then he made his way in the semi-darkness to the far wall and threw on the lights.

He literally rolled up his sleeves and started planning, picked the best spot for processing the new recruits before their flight to the island. He cleared, cleaned, set up tables and plugged in laptops to charge. He did it all in silence, glad for a few hours of peace where his task was easy, all physical and almost mindless. When he was done, he knew he was ready for when Ben and Frank and the newbies arrived. He'd made them a clean, well-lighted space.

Richard locked it up, walked a few blocks to the building where the Others owned apartments and hit the shower. He stood under the hot water for a quarter of an hour letting his mind empty of the challenges ahead. There was nothing more he could do about them tonight. Then he got dressed and went down the street to the last restaurant still open. It was hot out and the place was packed, doors and windows open and no air conditioning. There was a huge buzz of conversation all around him as he sat at the far corner of the bar and ate dim sum and drank sake.

In the middle of his meal he got a sudden shot of a memory: He and Juliet sitting on a beach on the island. It was the only night in all their time together when they'd spent a couple of hours, just them, talking. They discussed their lives, what they feared and what they still hoped for. It was a few months after she'd accepted the job he had recruited her for. She was still happy then, hopeful. He wondered why he'd thought of it and to shake it off he took a look around the restaurant and that's when it hit him: He could never live an average life, not on Guam, not in L.A., nowhere.

He'd told himself he'd set off the Weather Vane to keep it from Ben, to keep it safe, but he realized now he'd done it for himself too so he would have a reason to go back. He wondered if the rest of them – Kate, Sawyer, Miles – If they'd come to their own understanding that they'd never really break free of it either? Frank might, but the rest? Could any of them really just tell Hurley and Ben goodbye and good luck?

He continued to watch the others in the restaurant the rest of his dinner as if he were peering in at an alien world he'd never live on. Though he couldn't say he felt happy about the night's revelations they had come with an emotion. What was it? Relief, he decided.

He went back to the apartment, and fell into the first perfect sleep he'd had in years.

**Ann Arbor, MI**

Annie and Sawyer pulled up to the U of M satellite research center in Ann Arbor, and Sawyer drove to a point halfway between the street leading out to the highway and the building Annie was gesturing to.

"Before you go in there," Sawyer said, parking, "Will you tell me again why we are kidnapping an orangutan?"

"I am not going in there. We are going in there," Annie said, "It'll help him feel a lot more comfortable, he'll trust you more if it's us together he sees from the start. And we're taking him because he's the only thing that will break my mom, that will make her talk and tell us what we need to know about exactly who is after you and gunning for the island."

"What are you saying, if she doesn't give up the info we want you're going to hurt a poor defenseless primate?" Sawyer still hadn't taken the keys out of the ignition, was clearly on the fence about whether they were staying or not. "Wouldn't that pretty much give you the worst Karma ever? Sounds like a ticket on the train straight to hell to me."

"We're not going to hurt him!" Annie was clearly horrified by the idea, and Sawyer relaxed a little in his seat. "I've known Joop my entire life. If she won't crack, we take him back to the island – but I won't tell her that. All she'll know is that she'll never know. She'll always have to wonder what happened, where he is, how long he lived, when he died. Believe me, it'll be enough. I may be her daughter," Annie said, opening the car door. "But Joop is her baby."

It was close to dark. Sawyer was about to give Annie some suggestions on breaking into the building when he saw her walk up to the door, whip a key from her key ring. She let them in like they were just going home.

He'd expected a jail or a zoo, but even though it was square and flat and college-like on the outside, the inside of the building was set up like a house. They walked through the living room, and Annie went to one corner, stood on the arm of a couch and reached up to disconnect a surveillance camera. Sawyer smiled.

"You seem to know your way around. Any more surveillance we need to worry about? The cops going to come take us away?"

"They'll notice the cameras out eventually," Annie said, "But it's a pretty sleepy little operation in this facility. We have an hour, I'm sure. There is another camera in the hall – maybe you could bust it for me? It's up near the ceiling."

Sawyer did, after they climbed the stairs. Annie led him to a room off of the master bedroom, held a finger to her lips for silence as they entered just as Sawyer saw Joop lying in his double bed. He was very orange and tan and fuzzy, all arms and legs, snoring softly. Annie pointed to a chair, and Sawyer sat, watching as she pulled her own chair up closer to her old friend.

"I think it'd be best," Annie whispered, "If we don't wake him on purpose. He's not infirm or anything, he's very well," she said, "But he is a whole lot older than you might think. He's part of the Dharma Life Extension project."

"How old is he?" Sawyer asked simply, not whispering but keeping his voice down.

"One hundred and six years old," Annie said, "and ten months."

"What?" Sawyer said that a whole lot louder and more harshly than he'd intended to, and Joop stirred, rolled over, one arm draped over his forehead, blinking.

Joop saw Annie, and Sawyer was dumbstruck at what he swore was the sight of an Orangutan smiling. He sat up, and that's when he saw Sawyer, who braced himself for who knew what would happen next. But all Joop did was look from him to Annie, his smile melting into a question mark. She nodded, an "it's all right" smile on her own face, and Joop relaxed, sat back, put his hand on her shoulder, patted it.

"Want to go on a road trip, Joopie?" Annie asked, and that's all it took: He was up and at the door before them, looking back as if to ask, "What are you waiting for?"

"It helps," Annie said, "That I used to take him on road trips when I was a teenager."

"Where, Vegas? Spring Break?" Sawyer asked as the three of them walked together to the car. "I've seen some things the last couple of years," he said, "And this is definitely one of them."

He laughed softly.

"What?" Annie said.

"I'm picturing Miles' face when we get back to the house."

**The Island**

She had given it a good half hour after Richard left the Weather Vane, but Kate was too wound up with anticipation, couldn't wait any longer than that. She and Walt were inside that hatch now, sitting in front of the bank of computers across from the platform where one stood to take a quick trip to any of the places it connected to: Guam, the Lamp Post, and the Island.

She was urging Walt to tell her what he could, which wasn't very much. He hadn't had any formal training on it yet. All he knew was what he'd learned when he instinctively floated through it to one of the five iterations of the Island it was connected to now that Richard had set it off.

The computers couldn't show images of the places the hatch was linked to, instead there were screens and screens of data upon data – GPS information in each location, weather stats, maps showing hot spots where people were gathered, air mixture levels, a lot else that made no sense to her.

"Do you know," Kate asked, "How to avoid the bad places, like the one where the freighter people came through, the ones with the orange blood? Can you kind of pick which one you go to?" Walt nodded. "That's great. Can you send me, let's say just for an hour, to the beach where you went, where Charlie recognized you, the one just like here? And maybe, can you aim for not long after we crashed?" He nodded again and she walked to the platform.

"Walt, do you know what the phrase "office politics" means?" She asked. He just shrugged, so she went on. "Right now, Hurley and Ben and Richard are all concerned about the big picture," she said. "I'm thinking about us – you and Rose and Bernard and Des and Penny and Vincent…."

She stood there, took a deep breath.

"I need to make sure we have somewhere to run if the worst happens," she said.

"I know," Walt stayed where he was. "But if we're going to be honest with each other, Kate, I know there's more to it than that," he said and she was glad for his bluntness. "I'm not a kid anymore." Her heart broke a little, hearing him say that at fourteen. "I know you have your own reasons for wanting to go there, too. But I trust you, I know you're looking out for us."

"What makes this place 'work'?" Kate asked, realizing she was more than a little nervous. "Do you use that control panel?"

"No," Walt said, "It's all done with our minds. I just feel it and you go… then you come back when I bring you back. Same way. I can go with you if you want?"

"Not this time, Walt. Next time, though, okay?" She braced herself, started to feel the room go thin, blurry, and then she couldn't see it, or anything at all. "Oh, wow. Damn," Kate said, her voice quavering, clearly scared, and then she disappeared.

"See you soon," Walt said, did the math, started the timer on his iPhone, waited for it to get to 3,600 seconds.

**The Island, Weather Vane Connection Four of Five**

Kate was very fortunate on her first trip through the Weather Vane. She landed on her feet and almost fell but immediately pulled herself up to standing. She caught her breath, recognized the beach just a few hundred yards away dead in front of her. She walked as close as she dared, hiding behind trees, behind bushes.

She saw Shannon and Boone walking together, arguing, him lecturing her not so gently. Her eyes stung with tears at the sight of them and she had to look away. She saw Rose a few dozen yards further off sitting staring out at the water on her own. It was enough: Kate knew now just exactly where she was in this particular moment in time, on this island, knew it had only been couple of days since they'd all arrived. She circled back a few dozen yards and walked around the camp, went to look for Jack.

It took a whole lot longer than she'd hoped, nearly 50 minutes of her hour to find him. He was walking in the jungle, kicking the underbrush and searching for fallen fruit. He was frowning, intent on what he was doing. He was wearing the white shirt with the red lines through it that she remembered, and looked so much younger than the Jack she'd known in L.A. or the one she'd left behind on the island three months ago.

She had thought she was mentally prepared to see him, but standing there now she could barely breathe or swallow. She stood there with one hand on her neck, realizing that the phrase "my heart was in my throat" was not just an old saying.

That's when he saw her there, stopped, waved slightly, the frown replaced with a small smile. "What are you doing all the way out here?" His eyes went back to the trees, the ground, looking for more food. He kept walking, and she walked along.

"About the same as you." She kept it simple, didn't trust herself to say more.

"I could use your advice on something," he started to say, then he looked at her directly and he stopped dead in mid-sentence, clearly confused.

She knew he'd felt it then, what she hoped he'd see instinctively and without explanation, that she was not the version of herself he had crashed here with. She could tell he was a few seconds from adding it all up. Many things were different, actually: Her bearing, her sense of herself and of him in relation to her, the look in her eyes. Those were things that would take time to decipher. But then he saw the one thing that was purely physical, unequivocal – her stomach, and the small but undeniable baby-bump.

Suddenly he looked as terrified as they all had been the day they'd gone to look for the cockpit of the plane, and the smoke monster had smashed the window and grabbed the pilot. It was almost a 'fight or flight' response on his face and she feared that 'flight' was winning, especially when he dropped the backpack and turned away from her.

But he stopped, leaned against a tree with one arm and then looked back, angry.

"What the hell?" was all he said. "Who are you?"

"It's me, I promise Jack. It's just not the me you probably talked with an hour ago," she said. "It's a me who has known you for years, and who is going to really need your help next time you see me. We might all need your help- all of us in the place I came here from. I had to come find you now, so that when it all really hits the fan…. Well, you're not quite so shocked as I'm sure you are now."

She stopped there, and he started pacing, one hand on his forehead.

"Do we get home? And if we do get home, how? When?" He asked, and she was mentally transported back to the time when that was all that was on their minds.

"This isn't going to make any sense to you at all," She said. "But don't be in too big a rush for that. I know," she saw his reaction, held both her hands up as he started pacing angrily again. "I told you it wouldn't make sense. But trust me. It's not all so wonderful."

"Trust you?" He shouted it, and she jumped. "I'm about a thousand questions and answers from having any reason to trust you."

Kate decided that more talk would only lead to more frustration and so she did what she had wanted to do since she'd first seen him: She walked over and slid her arms under his, around his back, laid her face against his chest. She stood there feeling the sensation of holding him again, smelling his sweat through his shirt, felt dizzy with it all.

He was tense at first but then he relaxed and though he didn't hug her back he just stood there letting her hold him.

"It's me," Kate said. "It's the same person who sewed up your back a few days ago. I swear it's just me."

She looked up and he saw tears were rolling down her face and then he did put one arm around her, one on her shoulder in a way that suggested he was trying to piece a lot of things together quickly.

And then she saw it: It had just struck him that wherever she was here from, things had not gone so well for him. He looked horrified, shook his head, and then looked down at where her stomach was pressed against him, back up at her face. She nodded, smiling through her tears, took his hand in hers and set it on the bump.

"Oh my God," he breathed it as much as he said it.

They stood there several seconds, not moving, then they heard feet running their way, voices calling for him. Kate instinctively turned to run, but he grabbed her wrist, pulled her back, held her there a second.

"Let me go," she tugged, broke free. "Go help them. I'll be back."

She ran for several minutes, half blind and then sat on a log to catch her breath. She barely had it back when the island went all swimmy in front of her eyes, and then she was in the Weather Vane and Walt was helping her to the barracks, seemingly not the least surprised by the mess of a state that she was in. It was almost like he expected it.


	22. Kate's Plan, Annie's Plan

**The Island – 14 hours after Kate and Walt's return from the Weather Vane**

Kate woke up to find herself face down on the couch in her bungalow. It was very quiet, it felt like mid-afternoon and she was ravenously hungry. She realized she must have been asleep for a long time.

She heard the sound of fingers flipping paper, the pages of a small book turning. She flipped herself over, too, and lay with her head on the armrest.

"Hello, Hurley," she half whispered it.

He was sitting in a chair at the foot of her couch with one leg up over the other knee, reading his well-worn copy of "The Two Towers."

"Good afternoon," He stretched the word 'afternoon' out into about three overly cheerful syllables and never looked up.

"You going to lock me in the infirmary or one of the hatches until I agree to stop visiting the other island?" She asked. He put the book down then and smiled in a way which suggested that while he'd always be glad to see her he wasn't so happy right this second.

"Nah. You'd find some way out. But will you tell me why you can't wait until Richard gets back to help, and maybe actually give you and Walt some training?"

"That might take another week, at least, before we're really staffed up, right?" Kate asked. "Maybe longer. Do you have any idea when they'll get here- these Dharma holdouts who want 'their' island back?"

"No," Hurley got up, went to the kitchen. "But I'm not sure that makes what you did okay. What if you end up hurt or dying over there? We've probably already lost Claire. We could lose you over there, too. I can't keep losing the people I know best, Kate," He came back, handed her a bowl of cereal, a glass of juice. "I need you in one piece." She could hear he was getting more and more mad as he thought about it. "And even if everything goes fine, it's really draining for anyone who's not Desmond or Walt. We're not them, you know. They're special."

"I know Hurley," she said, smiling her thanks for the food, taking a drink. "Believe me I'm feeling it today. But it's a place to run where they're not likely to find us, where we can regroup and fight back. That's all I'm interested in. That's why I went there."

"Oh yeah, really?" Hurley sat down again. "That's all? So how was Jack?"

"Pretty freaked out," she said, still chewing a bite of cereal. Hurley's head dropped down to his chest for a second and when he looked up he was scowling, eyes half shut.

"Crap. I was hoping you wouldn't actually be crazy enough to talk to any of them. Why, why, why would you do that?"

"Because if we do need to go there we can hide in their Weather Vane hatch, seeing as we never did find it and it seems to have sat here pretty much undisturbed for a long time. But we'll need to go out to get food, water. We need someone there who'll have our backs."

There was a long pause while she ate and Hurley sat thinking.

"So what's your plan?" He saw she was surprised at his next words. "If you want me to sign off on this, there has to be a plan."

"I want to go back at least two more times," Kate said, "Talk with Jack again. I promise I'll be careful not to run into anyone else. But I want him to get Sayid involved, too. I won't get into details, I won't tell them about the D.I or the Others, they don't even know about them yet. I'll just explain we might need their help soon. Between the two of them, I know we'll have it if we need it. Walt was able to send me right to the point right after the plane crash: If he can be that exact again the next couple of times and drop me in a few days later each time, it'll be okay. I promise I'll only stay an hour or two each time, and I'll get back here."

"Okay," Hurley said, sounding resigned if not happy about it. "Agreed. But that's all you do, and if you want to change the plan you tell me first, right?"

Kate nodded a decisive yes, finishing her food.

"Kate, you're not thinking about trying to fix things for everyone on that island?"

"I might drop them a couple of hints," she said, her eyes unapologetic. "Take some meds from The Staff to them, too, " she saw the annoyed look he gave her. "You can't really object to that, can you? Seems only fair if we're asking them to help."

"You do know," he picked up his book, got ready to go, "That if Richard is right about this infinite worlds thing, then there are, like, a billion other places where we're all going through the same thing over and over again. What difference will it make if you fix it there?"

"It'll make a difference to them," Kate said quietly.

Hurley wanted to argue the point, but found he couldn't.

"I'm headed for The Flame," he said, waving with the hand that held his book. "Desmond said they'd get in touch. Get some rest, okay?"

**Ann Arbor- Sawyer, Evan, Miles and Annie's Rental House**

Sawyer knew that kidnapping a 106-year-old had its not so funny side, but Joop seemed to be really enjoying his latest adventure. So when he and Annie got back to the rental house around midnight and walked in the front door, Sawyer allowed himself to fully enjoy the look on Miles' face.

"What the…. what?" Miles said, staring blankly as Evan grinned, went over to meet Joop with a gently extended hand and a pat on the back.

"Have I ever mentioned," Miles said as Sawyer threw his head back and laughed, "That I'm deathly afraid of monkeys? Of course not, who the hell would think you'd ever need that information?"

"Well you're in the clear, then, man," Sawyer walked by him, dropped his jacket on the couch and headed for the kitchen. "He's not a monkey, he's an ape. Miles, you really ought to visit National G online or once in awhile. Don't you read? Seriously, this is Joop and he's an orangutan."

"Just be calm around him and he'll be fine," Annie took the slightly more constructive approach, giving Miles a reassuring smile. "He's good with new people. And if all else fails, punch up some animal videos on YouTube and you can keep him entertained for hours. Kittens are a big favorite."

"To watch or for dinner?" Miles asked. "Can I ask," he was clearly unconvinced, fists in his pockets, watching everything going on quite as normal all around him except with an Orangutan in the room, wandering around and checking things out. "Why he's here?"

"He's a vegetarian," Annie said, "And he is how we're going to get some answers out of my mom. He's her prized baby, her star pupil in Dharma life extension research. I'm guessing she's just about hearing that he's missing now. My phone should ring any time."

"That explains why you had us buy so much produce," Evan had already led Joop to the couch, was playing some baby panda videos on the laptop for his entertainment. "I couldn't imagine why we needed thirty pounds of fruit and a crate of spinach. And honey, too?"

"That's the equivalent of his morning coffee," Annie said and could see Evan enjoyed the new little bit of knowledge. "Joop has been moldering in a cement and glass apartment building for a couple of decades," she said. "With nothing but a few caretakers to entertain him. I'm sure he'd be happy to know he's about to maybe help save the island for Hurley."

"That's great," Miles said, "But I hope you won't mind if I head on up to bed now."

He said it as Sawyer was coming back in with a plate full of snacks and a six pack.

"Sit down, Miles, relax," Sawyer said. "You're way more worried about him than he is about you. And we have a lot to talk about."

They did have a lot to talk about, but they proceeded to not discuss it much at all for awhile. It had been a long day. Sawyer blipped around the TV channels, Evan was engaged with Joop. Annie kicked back a little, exhausted by the fight earlier with her mother and the whole process of getting them here.

Miles finally relaxed, enough to have a bite to eat, log onto the PC on the computer hutch to look for any messages from the Lamp Post or the island. There were none, and so he sent Hurley an update on their day that would be waiting for him at the Staff, he popped the top off of a beer and joined the rest around the TV.

Annie was enjoying the domestic interlude more than she thought she would, and looking around it dawned on her how much of the past few years she had spent on her own without even really thinking about it. She wondered if maybe those years were finally over.

When Sawyer headed for the kitchen to get a glass of water she followed him and stood in the doorway, arms folded, lightly, staring at him.

"Aaah," He said. "You're about to say something I'm not going to want to hear."

"Yeah," Annie said. "We'll have to think fast when my mom does call. I believe I know the best way to get the information we need."

"Okay," He sat at the kitchen table, pulled the chair to his right out and pointed at it. She sat. "And what's that?"

"She can tell us a lot, but not everything, she's not that plugged in anymore. I realized that when I was trying to get her to talk earlier, that she's on the edge of things now. We have to be near the people who really are plugged in, so I'll tell her she's going to get me into the D.I. She'll make up a story about the prodigal daughter who has come home to the fold. She'll tell them I know how to get back to the island and that's all I want in the world… which is true… but that I need them to help me get back because I can't afford it on my own."

"Sounds great," Sawyer said, nodding, holding a hand out toward her as if to say, 'well there you go…'

"You'll be our lovely little double agent. I should've thought of it. So what's the problem?"

"I need you to come too," Annie said, and kept going, talking faster when she saw he was about to object. "I want to help. I have the courage of my convictions, but I don't have experience lying about my past or getting myself out of tight situations on a dime. Fighting my mom is one thing, but I don't think I can do this without you. I'll probably be dead in a day if I try."

Sawyer looked down at the table, fiddled with the glass of water in his hands.

"What If we run into one of the old-timers, they could recognize me from the island."

"The only D.I. who came and went between the island and Ann Arbor were my parents and one other higher up: Some scientist they had working on space-time stuff, I don't know if he's even around to be a threat at all…"

Sawyer looked up at her, shaking his head with a small frown.

"His name was Daniel," he said, "And he died on the island. What about Evan or Miles? Maybe one of them would be a better option." Sawyer knew why he was fighting getting anywhere near these people again: It was already bringing back memories of three happy years and the horrific way they ended.

"Evan is lovely, smart, and a total boy scout. I need a guy who can make people believe he's whoever he says he is. And I'm pretty sure that means you."

"Aw, hell," Sawyer said.

"Yeah," Annie said, "I know. Sorry."

**The Flame hatch**

Hurley was steps into the hatch when he heard the insistent beep that told him there was a satellite phone call coming in.

"I'm here, go ahead," he pulled a chair up to the computer console and had a seat.

"Hurley, it's Des. We're okay…." Hurley went from glad to hear his voice to not wanting to know what was coming next. "We're a couple of days out from Hawaii, and we came across a ship – too small to be a cruise ship or even a fishing boat, at least the kind that'd be this far out. Listen, it may be much ado about nothing but here's the thing: It's kind of doing circles in the ocean, or maybe figure eights. Like it's looking for something."

"Tell me you're getting the hell out of there," Hurley said, "Hit the gas, or whatever it is you hit to go faster."

"It's okay, don't worry," He heard some urgency in Desmond's voice, but it sounded like it was more about wanting to get the information to him fast than concern about their safety. "Penny's tracking station up North is watching it, and guiding us on a course that'll get us where we're going without it being close enough to pick us up. She and her team have already talked with Ben and Eloise. They're doing everything they can to find out what it is, if it's a threat. Ben says if it is they have to decide whether to blow it up or go in and take hostages."

"Perfect, sounds like just the job for him. Let me know when you're in Hawaii, okay? Call before you leave there, and come straight back, forget about the side trip on the way home."

"Aye, later then," Desmond said, hung up.

Hurley sat staring at the console for a minute, called Richard in Guam.

"You awake? How many hours out is Frank? Good. Tell him to start pounding coffee, Red Bulls, whatever he needs to stay awake for the next four days or so. And get a bigger plane – tell him the largest one he feels he can comfortably land here. Time's up, man, we need support and security staff here now. And once you get them here, you're all coming back and you're staying this time, got it?" He stopped, let Richard get a word in edgewise.

"Yeah, I know we took a chance: We didn't have a choice, but we will now. We'll have other people who can do our running around for us. From this point on we're all staying here to fight this out together. Agreed? Good."

Hurley decided to stay in the hatch for the night to catch whatever call might come in next. But he stepped out for some air, and took a short walk around it. The sun was a couple of hours from setting and was throwing light through the trees at an angle that made the whole place seem lit from within as much as from outside.

It was just another day on the island, but he realized it was also the first day when he felt both like the boss, and utterly in need of company and words of advice.

He went inside and picked up the line to dial the various bungalows, dialed.

"Dad? I'm at the Flame. Can you come stay out here tonight? Head out soon, before it gets dark, okay?"


	23. Prepping for Battle Team Time and Space

**Ann Arbor**

Annie rolled out of bed at 7:00 a.m. and found the rest of the house up and hard at work. She walked into the living room in her sweats, yawning a little, surveying the scene. Miles was on the PC and looked up just long enough to give her a nod, looked back down. Evan and Joop were on the couch. Evan had Annie's cell phone hooked up to a laptop and was clicking away. He didn't see her until Joop got up, took her hand and led her back to the couch.

She curled up next to Joop, and he leaned into her, keying in on her sadness. She hadn't slept much since her mom had called her last night and screamed at her for several minutes for kidnapping him. In the end, though, it worked: Her mom agreed to get her and Sawyer a meeting with the Dharma leadership whatever was left of it. She would lie for them, tell them her daughter wanted back in to the fold and needed their financial backing to get back to the island. In exchange, Annie would claim to be giving them the one thing they were so desperately, even violently, searching for: The output of Eloise's computer program at the Lamp Post—the way there.

Everything that would happen next to their friends might ride on how much she and Sawyer could learn and get back to Hurley. Annie got a chill and literally shook for a split second thinking about it.

"Where's Sawyer?" she asked, seeing the remains of breakfast on the coffee table- cereal boxes, bowls, some spinach leaves and traces of honey on Joop's plate.

"He's already out the door, meeting someone Eloise pointed him to. They're giving him a makeover," Miles got up from the hutch, walked over, stood a few feet away from her with arms folded. "What you didn't think about when you were hatching this plan last night is that even if the current DI leaders don't know him from the seventies, some of their minions actually saw him when they attacked Claire and tried to kidnap him. If that is who attacked them, and I think we have to assume. He can't just go in there undisguised."

"Oh God," Annie said, raising a hand to her head. "I never thought of that."

"He did, and he's going with you anyway. He shouldn't be, but he is," Miles said, and Annie stopped feeling her own qualms about the mission long enough to see that he was close to fuming angry. "Listen," he went on, starting to pace. "I haven't known you very long but when we met you seemed like one of the more confident, self-directed people I've ever seen. Then we get here and all at once your mommy issues are showing. You're getting more and more mopey and unsure by the minute. You're about to drag the closest thing I have to a best friend into a very dangerous situation,"

He walked over to her, leaned down, was in her face enough to get a small gasp of disapproval out of the unfailingly polite Evan.

"This was all your idea, and it just might work. I'd appreciate it if you'd keep that in mind and…..just freaking focus, okay?"

With that he picked up the used cereal bowls and took them to the kitchen.

"Ass," Evan muttered, unplugging Annie's phone from the laptop.

"No, he's right," she said, her voice a little mystified, like she was asking herself how she'd come to this. "I'm letting her do it to me again – whenever I come home, it happens. It's amazing. I turn into teenaged me."

"Your mom is D.I., my mother's an Other," Evan said, handing her the iPhone. "Not very warm, lovey types on either side. It's because of all they've been through, I think."

"What did you do to my phone?" She looked and saw a new icon on the screen next to the weather and camera icons.

"I installed a web-based application that uses GPS to key in on your location, an app. We can track you with it. Doesn't mean we can save you, necessarily, if things go bad but at least we'll have some idea where you are. And if you leave the app open we can hear conversations you're having even if you're not on the phone."

"That's amazing," Annie looked up at him. "I've never heard of an app."

"You will, in about a year, a little more maybe. People will be buying 'em like crazy and you'll have had one long before them. Aren't you cool?"

"If they haven't released the technology yet, how do you have it?"

Evan shrugged, the tiniest hint of a smile on his lips.

"We have a friend in Cupertino."

Annie started to say something but they heard a key in the front door just as Miles was walking back in from the kitchen, and they all turned to watch Sawyer walk in.

This time it was Annie who gasped. Miles just stood there, his tongue pushing at this cheek, biting his lip to keep from laughing.

"Well?" Sawyer asked, standing there, arms out, "Anyone gonna say anything?"

"I'd walk right by and never know it was you," Evan said. "You look a total…. geek."

"Perfect," Sawyer took off the black canvas trench coat he was wearing, tossed it on a chair along with the beaten up computer bag full of buttons and stickers he'd been carrying. "'Cause that's what we were going for."

His hair wasn't so much cut shorter as it was thinned, darkened, stringy, flat. He had glasses with black chunky frames, contacts that turned his grey eyes into dark brown and that alone somehow changed half his face. He was wearing jeans and a t-shirt with a white shirt open over it. Everything, the clothes, the gear bag, even his low top Converse sneakers were the right degree of scuffed and aged, as if he'd had them for months or years and not hours. He was cleaner shaved than Miles had ever seen him, and they'd even give him a couple of shaving cuts to add to the overall picture of disregard for anything fashionable or put together.

"The hair," Miles finally spoke. "It's an homage to Daniel, isn't it?"

Sawyer grinned, and for a second they could see him again in his smile.

"Yeah, I did kind of give 'em some pointers there. Pretty good, huh?"

"I've got to get ready," Annie said, leaving the room suddenly, heading upstairs fast. It was the only thing she'd said since he walked in. Sawyer gave Miles a 'what was that' look and then another one that suggested something was dawning on him.

"She did have a crush on our Benjamin when she was a kid, didn't she? Maybe I look a little more like her type now. Think she'll be able to restrain herself?"

"You are wound up this morning," Miles said dismissively, headed for the computer "I'm thinking she'll manage. Come on, we need to hop on Skype, get in touch with Hurley before you go. There's a lot going on. The new recruits are hitting the island, and there's a ship that Desmond and Penny dodged on their way to Hawaii. It's doing little circles in the ocean- about a day and a half out from the island."

The last bit of amusement on Sawyer's face was gone and he pulled up a chair.

"Think they're hanging there, waiting for directions?"

"Yes. Not that I know anything more than Hurley knows, which isn't much. But we're all pretty sure they've been there since someone tried to kidnap you a few days ago. They thought they'd get the directions out of us then, so they're going to be pretty interested in a Plan B, and that's where you two come in."

"Dial him up," Sawyer said. "Sounds like we need to get moving."

**Hydra Island**

Frank brought the Dornier 228 jet in for a landing on the same strip he'd flown Ajira 316 off of just a little more than a dozen weeks before. It felt odd to be there again, but a whole lot easier to manage with a 15-seater than with a jumbo jet, he thought.

He and Richard helped the new recruits off the plane, and he saw Bernard and David Reyes walking their way through the jungle and into the clearing, waving to them.

"Welcome back," Bernard addressed Richard. "Only problem with going with a bigger plane is no pontoons. We're going to have to ferry these guys to the main island with the outriggers. It'll take awhile."

"Actually," Richard waved for everyone to start walking east on a path that would take them all by the Hydra station complex and then to the shore. "We'll leave seven of the fourteen new team members here. This station needs a lot of work, too, to make it useful again. They can start today, then get some rest and work on it some more tomorrow morning. You can come get them then."

"Perfect," Bernard said, started to head out, but Richard hung back a second to talk with Frank.

"You should stay here, get some rest, too before you fly back to Guam," Richard suggested, but Frank shook his head, threw a wave and walked back to the plane.

"I'm good right now, I feel great. I'll sleep when I get there, and I'll get in touch before I start back this way with the next fifteen. We'll have you a full crew of security and engineers here in two days, maybe three."

"Thank you," Richard and Bernard left for the station, David taking up the back end of the line to keep everyone on track.

"How do you know he'll come back?" Bernard asked. "How do you know he won't just get the hell out of here and go back to flying tourists around for a living?"

Richard looked at him, shook his head, a small smile on his face.

"He won't. I saved him from a world of misery when security caught him after our plane landed. He'll help us as long as we need him. Where else is he going to go right now that doesn't involve a formal investigation into what happened to all those people?"

They walked in silence for a while after that.

"Richard," Bernard said eventually, "You've been through a lot of these conflicts here. You personally helped wipe out the Dharma team on the island, didn't you?"

"Yes," Richard said, coolly. "What's your point?"

"I'm worried about Hurley. This is an a lot for him to handle so soon."

"Hurley's doing fine," Richard said. "I'm not sure what you're concerned about."

"I'm guessing things could get nasty. I'm just thinking, hoping, since you and Ben have had to make those ugly decisions before…. Maybe you can shield him from them for awhile longer."

"We'll get him through it," Richard said, "But Bernard, Hurley could be at this job for a very long time. Just keep in mind, some of these decisions you call ugly aren't so much when they protect this place and our people- like your wife, Walt, our new recruits who are taking their chances with us…."

"I know," Bernard said as they turned off on onto the path that'd lead to the Hydra station. "It's just that it's only been four months."

"We'll have his back," Richard shrugged. "I really feel confident we'll win. I just hope we're all around to celebrate the win."

"Amen to that," Bernard said, "I'm with you there," and they walked in quiet again.

They dropped off half the recruits, paddled the other half the two miles to the main island. Richard saw the familiar green folds of the widest of the island mountainsides coming into view, and it made the rowing easier as he felt a flood of relief to be home.

Well before sunset they were at the barracks, and Hurley was waiting for them. He shook the hands of each of the new recruits, showed them to Rose who showed them to their bungalows. Then Hurley pulled Richard aside, took him to the picnic table by the gazebo. Richard saw Kate and Walt sitting there.

"Richard, Walt has something to say to you," Hurley said, motioning for Richard to sit next to his protégé. "Walt?"

"I'm sorry we started using the Weather Vane without you."

Richard's face fell, and Hurley could tell it wasn't even about disappointment as much as it was shock that Walt could do so at all. Then his head snapped around and he looked at Kate.

"We?" Richard asked.

"Yes," Kate said. "We. And unlike Walt, I'm not sorry."

"Now, now," Hurley pointed at her. "Play nice. Richard, Kate may be a little blunt sometimes but she has some good ideas about how we could use the Weather Vane to protect ourselves and maybe lock up the D.I. for good if they make it all the way here." He gestured to the spiral notebook on the table. "The three of you need to talk, write out a plan. Review it with me in the morning and then be ready to get to it, okay? Team 'Time and Space', we're counting on you."

He walked away and Richard looked from Kate back to Walt.

"Is that our name?" He said and Walt looked at him blankly. "Team Time and Space? Because I really think we can do better."

Walt laughed out loud at that, and even Kate grinned, opened the notebook and picked up the pen.

"Let's put that on the list, Richard," she said. "But it could be a long one. Here's what I'm thinking….."


	24. The More Things Change

**The Island**

**Iteration four of five- via the Weather Vane**

Kate paced in the jungle near the well-worn path to the caves. Her eyes flitted as she walked, ears straining for anyone headed her way.

Before she'd set out on this trip through the Weather Vane she had her first actual lesson from Richard on how to use it. They were both awestruck by Walt's ability to slide between worlds effortlessly. Being a mere non-telekinetic mortal herself Kate had to use the station more like a scheduling tool. But she could do that now, and it freed Richard and Walt up to do their inventory of the other four worlds they were connected to while she kept at her goals.

They all felt the pressure to make progress: No one knew when an attack by the D.I. might be coming or from where. But at least for this one day, Kate had given herself the gift of time. It'd be hours and hours before she would feel that odd, blurry, wavy sensation between her throat and her chest that told her she was being pulled back to "her" island, the one without a Boone or a Charlie, a Sayid, a Claire or a….

"Jack," she saw him coming up the path toward her, said his name sharply but softly in case anyone was right behind him. No one was, and he stopped in his tracks, absently shifting the backpack he was carrying a little and looking for the source of the whispering. She stepped out onto the path and heard him exhale in relief.

"So you weren't a hallucination," he said, face straight and forehead wrinkled slightly. "There's some good news, for once," but he was looking away from her as he finished the thought, out at nothing particular in the jungle. "I was just talking with you down at the beach."

"I know," she said, "I saw… before I came up here."

"Stalking me?" he asked archly and she grinned, couldn't resist sparring.

"Takes a stalker to know one."

"Aw, all right then," Jack actually laughed and looked down, quickly back up at her. "Touché. I guess you tried to leave me and it didn't go so well?"

"The separation didn't work out," she said. "Can we go talk? I won't run away so fast this time, I have hours."

"I think we pretty much have to talk," he looked her over and she realized how much bigger she was than when she'd seen him last. She'd gone way past "is that a baby bump?" to "yeah, no doubt."

"Can you hike out and around the caves, meet me over there? I'm dropping off fish and guava. I'll tell them I'm going back for more."

"Of course, see you soon," she said, saw him start to turn. "Oh, Jack, wait, take this," She handed him the pack on her shoulder. "Stash it with your stuff."

He unzipped the bag, started rifling through and his eyes lit up.

"Painkillers, antibiotics, syringes," he clearly appreciated the sign of good faith. "This is a huge help, thanks. Why all the asthma inhalers, though? There must be a dozen of them in here."

"You'll know soon," she said. "I figured I'd save someone a lot of suffering. Several people, actually. Suffering and bad will that never had to be." She waved toward the caves. "Go, deliver your fish. See you soon."

"See you," he turned again and that's when she felt it fully: She'd never be able to watch him walk away without wanting to go after him. Suddenly there was someone else on the island she wanted to have a good long talk with – but she knew it wouldn't help. She wouldn't listen to herself anyway.

**Ann Arbor**

**Driveway of Sawyer and Annie's rental house**

_It's easy enough to hate a 'side,' to screw over a 'side'. There have been at least two sides in every single battle from the beginning of time and mostly they're about ideology. He has good reasons to hate ideologues. One of them hijacked his life, caused the death of the woman he loved, turned his friends into puppets, zombies and martyrs. _

_As long as you do what you can to protect your friends, who cares who wins the war? He sure as hell doesn't._

"You okay?" Sawyer asked Annie as she slid in the car, put on her seat belt. He started it up and flicked on the wipers to push away the light frost that had formed in the hour after he'd gotten back to the house. It was December in Michigan, and though it wasn't brutally cold it was chilly enough for frost and to see your breath on the air as you walked to the car. "You've barely said a word in the last hour."

"Yeah," she said, pulling on some gloves. "I'm fine. It freaked me out a little, seeing you come in. It's not the disguise, although they did a good job with it. It made where we're going next feel so… real. I won't let you all down, I promise."

"You can do this," he checked the back window, pulled out of the driveway. "Listen, I know Miles gave you the negative reinforcement speech back there, but there's something he forgot to tell you," Sawyer turned back to her as they drove off and the cold but electric gleam in his eye and the hard and inviting curl of his lips as he smiled at her nearly made her gasp out loud. "Conning people is fun. Especially when you get it right. So let's go have some fun."

_He'd heard the bitchy little voice of reason reprimanding him in his head these last weeks: "They went through it all too. They're not playing this for money, for revenge, to feel alive again. They picked a side and they stuck with it. Why can't you?"_

_There was a time he thought he had. Then he and she got slapped down hard for it. _

_It was on the Ajira flight to Nauru that he had remembered himself: A tiger doesn't change his stripes. People who con keep conning. People who run keep running. People who keep trying to prove themselves to mommy and daddy- they just drive themselves crazy, get killed. It would never be over with these people. They'd keep fighting over that freaking rock until they were each broke, destroyed or dead. _

Sawyer and Annie were headed for a diner fifty miles away to meet the most senior Dharma Initiative officers left in the world. They'd have an hour, maybe less, for Annie to convince them she wanted to go back to the island with them. Whatever she could get out of them about their plans, how deep their pockets were, how they might attack – that was the prize, the information she desperately wanted to take back to Hurley and Ben. She had no way of knowing everything they'd tell her was a lie, that they knew exactly who they were dealing with and that to them she was at worst a distraction, at best perhaps a potential hostage with which to sway the latest head of the island.

_He didn't care if it was a place where miracles happened, he wasn't ready to lay down and die for it- or watch them waste their last breaths on it either. So he made some calls, made some deals, prepared to play one side against the other. _

_He's not abandoning them, he tells himself. He's done what he can to protect them: Kate, Walt, Hurley, Miles, hell, even Annie and Evan. _

_He'll profit in a huge way whoever "wins," he's made sure of that. And even though it's not his primary mission he takes some comfort knowing that in the process of screwing the fanatics over he'll also accomplish something Jack swore he would but never did: They'd all be off the island when this round was done, all his friends, Hurley included. As long as it plays out right, he tells himself, the rest of this- none of it matters._

*&* -_- +-+ (:

Back at the house Miles was multi-tasking on the computer after Sawyer and Annie left. Evan scooped up Joop, headed for the kitchen.

"I'll get him some lunch," he said and Miles barely nodded, deep in what he was doing.

"Hey, fine," he said a second and a half later, "But come back as soon as you can. We have to track them and I'm checking in with Hurley again. They're getting more in on this this boat that's out there…."

"Yeah, I'll be quick," Evan said. He got Joop set up, and once he was happily distracted on the kitchen table nibbling at a plate of fruit and greens Evan pulled the piece of paper Annie had handed to him out of his pants pocket. She'd folded it intricately, like origami or those little foldy finger puppets with words on the sides that girls made when he was at school on the island. It took him a few seconds to pry it apart. He remembered how she'd slipped it to him in the moments before she came downstairs to leave with Sawyer.

"Don't let Miles see this," was all she said. "Not yet. After this morning, he won't believe me. But it might help later. It might be backup for you."

He'd stuck it in his pocket reflexively, not even looking at it at the time. The way he did it so automatically without question made her smile but it wasn't a happy smile.

"Maybe you could get Joop to the island for me?" She asked, squeezed his shoulder briefly and then started down the stairs. "He deserves better than to live in a boring old steel and glass apartment with a caretaker."

Now he had the note apart and it was very much to the point, like her.

"Something's wrong," Annie had written. "I saw his face in the second before he walked in the door. He's hating on himself for a lie. Find out for sure - warn Hurley and Ben. I think we are being played."

**The Island**

**Iteration four of five- via the Weather Vane**

"Why are you here?" They were the first words out of Jack's mouth and he was still walking toward her, didn't even bother to wait until he was caught up to her at their rendezvous beyond the caves. His tone was more concerned than hostile but Kate saw he was going to be at his most demanding and least patient today. "I'd ask how you're here, but I'm guessing that question will take some serious time to answer."

"Both questions will," Kate said, her voice calm and patient to deflect his. She started walking out slowly toward the Weather Vane. "Why am I here? First, I'm here because our friends and I might need somewhere to hide soon, to regroup. Where we are a war is coming," she said and saw him visibly calm down, start to really listen. "You might be able to help us with that. And two, I can help you all get out of here. You don't have many reasons to believe me yet," she stopped, pointed to where she wanted them to turn next, "but I care about that as much. If you all get out of here alive," she searched for the words in her heart and then they came pouring out of her mouth. "I might be able to spend the rest of my life at peace."

"If you know how to get us out of here," Jack was clearly still focused on the only thing that he could think about, "does that mean you're not stranded anymore? Who's still on your island? How do we get away, and when?"

"Every question I answer right now," she said, didn't break her stride this time, "Will only lead to a hundred more."

"That," Jack said, "I believe. Maybe it'd be best if we walk for now, talk when we get where you're taking us."

They spent the next half hour in silence, pushing through heavy grass up to their knees. Jack took the lead, clearing branches and kicking a path through for her. She steered them, then stopped him with a hand on his shoulder, stepped in front of him and much to his confusion started prying apart vines that looked to be falling over a cliff until he saw they were falling over a huge metal door with a heavy handle.

For a second he stared frozen at the first sign of a man-made structure he'd seen on the island, then he jumped forward and helped her pull the heavy door. He stuck his head in and saw stairs leading down, stepped back out.

"It's a hatch," Kate said, "A station. A place none of us ever did find. It's safe. We can go in and no one will bother us."

She led the way down, pulling a small flashlight out of her pack and he followed.

"Is this the only one of them?" Jack found the circuit boxes, threw a breaker and the power snapped on with a thrum. The computers of the Weather Vane flickered on, the kitchen lit up and the breakfast booth and bunk beds were softly illuminated.

"No, there's a bunch of them – six, maybe eight," she said and saw the latest wave of 'what the hell' wash over his face. "This is the Weather Vane. You'll spend some time in The Swan soon. "

"It's like being at Alice's tea party," Jack said half under his breath, as much to himself as to her.

"It'll get easier, I promise, she said. This hatch is how I'm getting here. It's a weather station, too," she said, walking around the room, "And there's a working refrigerator. You could store food here."

"How is it powered?" Jack asked, walking his own slow circle, examining it all.

"Solar powered. Perfect, right? There's a breakfast nook, and look- a shower," she pointed it out with a grin, remembering how happy they'd all been with the simple pleasure of a working bathroom, soap and shampoo.

"What's this?" Jack pulled open a door not far from the shower, saw racks of shelf space, a bench inside.

"It's a walk-in safe, basically," Kate said, joined him and started fiddling with the lock. "You can set a combination – use it to store things you don't want everyone getting at. Pick three numbers." There was a lilt in her voice as she waited to hear what'd come next.

"Three, twelve, sixty nine," he said quickly and she stopped short and then went back to setting it. "Not what you expected?" he asked.

"Your birthday," she smiled up at him, "Easy to remember. But yeah, I was expecting to hear some other numbers. Too soon, though. I'm ahead of myself. There," she said, handed him the door. "All programmed for you. Want to try it out?"

"Sure. Hey, what's that along the back wall?" Jack asked and she stepped inside.

"What? There's nothing….." Kate stepped inside and then felt her heart fall at the exact moment that the door snapped shut, the tumblers of the lock falling into place. "Jack," she barked it. "What did you do?"

"I'm sorry," he sounded it, too, sounded torn and pained, and she looked straight up at the ceiling of the safe caught between extreme annoyance and a vague memory of what it had been like to feel as completely frantic as she knew he did right now. "But I can't let you leave here until you explain everything to us. And I need someone else to hear it- someone who's an expert on questioning people. I'm going to get Sayid."

Kate started to laugh so hard that to Jack it sounded like she was standing right next to him, and not on the other side of the door he had his left hand and his ear pressed against.

"I locked you in a safe and told you I'm going to get our resident interrogation expert," he said, "and you're laughing?"

She caught her breath, put her own face against the inside of the door.

"It's okay, go get him," she said softly, but he heard it. "I was actually going to ask to talk to him too. You know he and I trusted each other right from the start, when everyone else was fighting. We see each other clearly. And if I come here in a crisis, having two of you who know me doubles my chance of getting help."

There was a pause.

"That makes perfect sense," Jack said.

"Okay, so go get him Jack. But make it quick – because in three hours I'm gone, safe or no safe. I'll explain that to you, too, when you decide to let me out."

He didn't say anything more, but she heard him run for the stairs and knew they'd be back soon. She sat on the bench along the wall nearest the kitchen, then stretched out, feeling the exhaustion of the trip here really hitting home. She wiped tears from her eyes, told herself they were only about the laughing jag she'd had.

She fell asleep wondering how people who cared so much about each other could keep on having trust issues big enough to drive a submarine through.


	25. Dirty Deals and Snap Decisions

**Blissfield, Michigan**

**River Diner**

**Friday, 10am**

"Seems like a strange place for this meeting," Annie threw her coat on as Sawyer pulled their car into the parking lot.

They were fifty miles from Ann Arbor, in a little town she was sure the D.I. leaders had picked for its inconspicuousness. Then again, for all she knew they could own the place: The diner, or maybe the whole town. She suddenly wished she'd paid more attention when she was a kid, had a better sense of what might be left of this group her mother had founded with her dad. But, she thought, that's why they were here supposedly.

"It's fine. Many an alliance has formed in a diner," Sawyer was out of the car fast, walked around the front and waited for her. "The staff's too busy to listen to you or care and the other customers have their own dramas to worry about."

He was practically glowing with a twisted little fire she hadn't seen in him once since they met. It made her question her own doubts about him. Was he actually playing both sides? If so, did he just love conning so much that it could be a turn-on for him even when he knew half the room was clued in?

If you'd asked her yesterday to describe her new comrade, she might have said he was intriguing, creative, volatile and, okay, well, hot. Standing there now, taking a deep breath, she added 'kind of scary' to the list.

"If you only remember one thing," Sawyer said, started walking slowly across the lot toward the diner, "It's don't give out too much at once. Short answers or answers that aren't answers. If they ask something you don't want to deal with all, look to me or steer them back to talking about their mission. The more you get the other guy to think about his glorious mission, the more you'll get out of him and the less time he has to think about what your deal might really be."

"Got it," She drew herself up and he could see her put on something like a game face.

"You're gonna do fine, Annie," Sawyer adjusted the computer bag on his left shoulder, slid his right arm around her. "Let's go play these Next Gen hippies."

**Saline, Michigan**

**Town Line Barber Shop  
>Friday, five hours earlier<strong>

"You broke the rules," Sawyer practically yelled it, very worked up for the conversation he was about to have with Dori Goodspeed. The 13 mile drive was just long enough to think, fume, get furious about it all over again.

Dori, son of Olivia, nephew of Horace, had been born in Ann Arbor six months after the women and children had been sent from the island in '77. He was the first D.I. member Sawyer had tracked down and so was the first to learn there had been a power-shift on the island, one that might just make it vulnerable to attack. That information combined with Sawyer's ongoing stream of intel from the island and from the Lamp Post had cost the D.I. eight million dollars so far. The other eight Sawyer would get as soon as they won, as soon as they took it all back.

Glaring at him now Sawyer saw none of the decent Horace or scholarly Olivia in him, just a chilly, brilliant but humorless zealot with a receding dirty blonde hairline and hard thin line of a mouth that reminded him of Radzinsky more than anyone else. Sawyer almost hated himself for dealing with these people. But they owed him.

"Why in the hell did you attack us in that driveway?" He charged right up to where Dori was pulling the shop curtains closed, turning on just one of the lights, got right in his face. "You tell me you didn't kill that little girl for nothing, you tell me Claire's alive or you're not leaving here walking."

Sawyer was a half a head taller than him and clearly twice as strong, but Dori wasn't cowed, just pointed him to the closest of the barbershop chairs.

"What kind of people do you think we are?" Dori asked. "We don't kill anyone unless we have to. You and our friends tried to help her but you failed." His voice was patient but too calm, slow, cold. Somehow it only made Sawyer angrier. "We couldn't let her go running wild. Who knows what she would have told about what she's seen? So we took her in for treatment."

"Treatment?" Sawyer sat, but looked like he might get right back up and deck Dori if he didn't like what he heard next.

"Drug therapy, power of suggestion, a light, induced coma. There's more, but let's leave it at that. We darted her with the same thing we used on you. Unfortunately our shooter aimed poorly, that's why it looked worse than it was. Trust me, we're doing everything we can for her and we'll deliver her back to your people soon. I promise."

A burden over Claire's disappearance that he didn't even realize he was still carrying fell from Sawyer's shoulders and he sat back, some of his anger draining away with it. They would have done what they'd done whether he was working with them or not.

"We haven't been able to talk with you face to face since you cooked up that trip to Phoenix," Dori walked over to a coffee pot, gestured to ask if he wanted some, Sawyer shook his head no. "We were just trying to bring you in with her, to catch up."

"And for that you knocked me on my ass for days? Heard of a goddam cell phone?"

The next week or two have to be planned carefully. You're a difficult man to get ahold of without your friends right at your elbow. That must be driving you crazy, being something of a loner and all."

"Enough about me," Sawyer glared at him. "I didn't sign up to be a D.I. lap dog. I told you I'd get you every bit of intel you need, and that's just what I've been doing. Now you tell me again that you're sticking with our agreement."

"Of course. Whatever happens, Reyes, Kate, Walter Lloyd- we take them without harm to them no matter how many of our people they take out first. The rest, as long as they make wise decisions they're safe too. Hopefully they're smart enough to surrender."

"One more thing," Sawyer stopped him. "When we did this deal, I had no idea Kate would have to go back there. You know she can't leave until the baby's born, and I want your word she'll have your personal protection."

"Of course, and the best medical care. It's only fair. You can even stay there with her if you want. Although after she learns what you've done, something tells me she'll never want to see you again."

"Enough about me, " Sawyer said again, and this time the 'or else' in his voice wasn't so subtle.

"Good idea you came up with, coming here for a disguise. Just the time we need to talk. Think your friends will buy it?"

"It was practically Miles' idea." Sawyer said, heard a hint of disgust with himself in his own voice he hadn't expected.

"Good. Help will be here in fifteen minutes. We pay him well but he's not D.I., so let's get our plans hashed out before he walks in. We've been looking for The Searcher since you told us they left for Hawaii, but I think they dodged us. Tell me what you've heard. We can't afford to miss them on the way back."

**Blissfield, Michigan**

**River Diner**

**Friday, 10:30am**

Annie went into their meeting starting to doubt her misgivings but that ended fast.

She sat on one side of a booth, Dori Goodspeed to her left. Across from them were Sawyer and two other D.I. – a woman of about 28 who he'd introduced as Elian Lewis, and a man no more than three years older who they simply called Kyker. Annie had noticed the barest trace of a reaction from Sawyer, a quick turning of his head toward the red-headed Elian when she was introduced and from her voice, Annie guessed some Brit he'd met on the island had a sister or daughter no one had known about. Kyker, they learned, was the son of the D.I.'s chief videographer.

Her heart sank little by little through the next hour. She told her story about wanting back into the group, and though they poked and prodded a little they could have been much more demanding. They barely questioned the story about how the two of them had met during her time in Guam after college and it only confirmed to her they already knew who it was they were dealing with. It was almost insulting, until she realized they had no idea she had a clue. She had to admit, with blinders on it might have all felt more right.

Then Elian said something that told her a lot about the new D.I.

"Our parents were utopians," She said, "We want to build an empire. You say you want to go back to the island to learn how it heals people. Will you be good with your research being put to practical use, profitable use, even if you can't control it?"

Now it was Annie's turn to wonder if Sawyer caught the subtext. Because even though it felt to Annie like she might be a pawn or even a hostage very soon – it seemed maybe these three, Elian at least, saw some real use for her. They might actually be hoping that once the lying was over, the DeGroots' daughter might decide she wanted back in the D.I.

"Of course," Annie said, "I'll sign over to you the use of what I learn. As long as I profit, too." And she knew it was the right answer, though it was so very much a lie.

**Ann Arbor**

**11:15am**

At the rental house, Miles sat at the computer emailing with Hurley while he and Evan listened to the output of Annie's cell phone app and every word of their meeting. Evan was on the sofa behind Miles, and the more he heard, the more he felt he had to do something. Telling Miles all wasn't it, not yet. He picked up his own cell phone and texted Ben at the Lamp Post.

"You need to send Miles and me back to L.A., to Kate's…" he keyed in, waited. Got a simple '?" back from Ben, followed by five words: "We're a little busy here…"

"Annie says something's wrong…" Evan wrote. "… with Sawyer." He didn't text that after what they'd heard he tended to agree. He knew he was too low on the totem poll for that to matter to Ben.

"If there's anything going on with him, the clues aren't here," Evan wrote instead. "They're at Kate's."

There was a long pause with no question marks, no reply at all.

"You just have to decide," Evan wrote. "Do you trust Annie?"

"Got it, safe trip, talk soon," The sound of Miles talking filtered through to Evan, he was absorbed enough that he'd missed that Sawyer had called. "They're headed for the airport. They're in! They're heading straight to sea with them."

"That's great," Evan smiled, tried to look as enthused as he could, flipped his laptop shut. "They did great."

Miles' phone rang again and he just said, "Yeah," expecting Sawyer. "Ben, hi, did you hear? They did it…."

Evan slammed out one more message.

"Send a private plane. We're taking Joop with us."

The response came back quickly this time and it read, "Oh for heaven's sake…" Evan smiled, his thumbs keying in a reply. "It's the least we can do for her. She's taking a huge chance for us."

"Wow. Okay. We'll be there soon." Miles slipped his phone in his pocket, headed for the stairs. "Ben says we have to get back to L.A. They've found something out about Claire. He'll tell us more when we get to Kate's. Oh," he stopped halfway up. "And he's sending a private plane to the county airport. We're bringing him," he pointed to Joop, and the look on his face showed he clearly thought the whole world was going a little crazy and there was the proof.

Evan sat back, gave a great sigh of relief and looked at Joop who was tugging his shirtsleeve with one hand, tapping the laptop with the other.

"Sorry, no Animal Planet right now, buddy," Evan said. "But there's good news. No more jail. You're going to love the island."


	26. Team Jate & Sayid and Miles' VB Day

**Walk-In Safe  
><strong>**Weather Vane- Island iteration 4 of 5**

At first it feels to Kate like it's taking forever to wake up, she's so drained from the trip there and the mild shock of Jack locking her up so unexpectedly. Then she realizes it's only really been a few seconds. The voices that woke her are followed by footsteps and then the clicking of the combination lock spinning, stopping, spinning. She sits up shakily with her feet on the bench in front of her, puts a hand over her eyes as the door opens and the light from the Weather Vane hits her.

"Hello," she recognizes Sayid's voice, the version of it that she knows means he's deeply surprised, the one that's at the lower end of his register but as smooth and sweet as cake batter. She looks up through her fingers and sees him motioning for Jack to not leave but to stand in the doorway and listen.

"Better use of all of our time," he says to Jack as he slides down next to her on the bench. "No sense having this conversation twice."

Sayid looks directly at her then, eyes blank, is silent for a minute. His body is facing forward, his head sideways and his hands are clasped together in front of him.

"Hi," she says back belatedly, and her lips are smiling but her eyes are not. She knows he has no idea why she's emotional looking at him, probably thinks it's about being held captive by them.

"I'm surprised to see you," Sayid says it with no less amazement than the hello, looking her up and down. "I thought our friend was having a stress reaction. I thought I'd see an empty room, or no room at all. But here you are. Is this time travel?"

"Not only time," Kate says. "Time and space. Heard of the "Many Worlds" idea?"

"Of course," Sayid sits back a bit. "Travel forever in a spacecraft and you'll come upon world after world with you in it. That's pure blue sky. It's theoretical cosmology."

"I'm no theory," she says, wipes her eyes and puts her knees down crossing her legs in front of her. "Our islands are connected by this place."

"So you're saying you're not 'like' our Kate, you are her?" he asks.

"The one person I know who is an expert at all this says yes," she shrugs. "But I try not to think about it too hard or it freaks me out."

She's sensed Jack getting increasingly agitated over the course of the last few sentences and now he steps out of the doorway and she sees him pacing in the next room.

"Why was this place built?" Sayid glances out that way, too.

"It was built by a cult, kind of, some very idealistic people who were out to save everybody if the worst happened. You know, nuclear war, big scale bioterrorism. But of course then everyday people started using it and…."

"And saw it could also be a way to save somebody and not just everybody," Sayid finishes her thought and she nods. "So now there's what, a power struggle of some sort over it?"

"Something like that," she says.

"And is that why you can't take us all to your island to safety?" Sayid asks. "Because I'm pretty sure there are a few here who would take you up on that."

"Really?" Kate asks, looking intrigued by what he has just said but skeptical. "Think about it: Living somewhere you knew wasn't really entirely yours, maybe feeling a little out of synch with everyone else?" She paused, looked down at her hands in her lap. "Not that I haven't spent a lot of my life feeling that way anyway. But, there are rules and I have to respect the person in charge of my island. He doesn't want us playing God and I don't either. But I can't not try to prevent the worst of what's coming."

"In charge of an island?" Jack's back in the doorway, so frustrated he practically snaps it at her. "Who's in charge of it? It's an island."

Sayid reaches back with one hand, a wordless request for him to stop.

"Tell me why you feel so compelled to help us?" he asks, and her throat tightens.

"Because last time I was asked to, I waited too long. I said no at least twice and by the time I changed my mind and we figured everything out it was too late."

"And what if you fail again this time?" Kate's confused both by how fast Sayid asks the follow-up and how suddenly insistent his voice is. He takes the fingers of her right hand in his and while he isn't squeezing hard enough to truly hurt her it's uncomfortable enough to act as a command, focus her attention and bring her eyes straight up to his.

"What?" she whispers it, confused by the question and why he's even asking it.

"You must know there's some chance you'll fail. Jack's told me you feel the need to take it a step at a time. But what if you give us your first advice, come back here next time and find us all dead? What happens to you if you try to save us and you fail?"

"I can't," she says, her eyes squinting, her voice so low and strained it's barely audible to him inches away from her. "I've never come close to letting what we went through destroy me, but if it all happens again it might. It's all so complicated, if we rush this….. You have to trust me. You have to, please."

She broke his grip, threw his arm toward the wall and her hand went to her forehead and her forehead to her knees as she fought to not cry.

Sayid got up and walked the few steps to the doorway, pushed a now stunned-looking Jack toward the bench.

"Jack, meet Kate," he said. "She's telling us the truth. And if she's willing to risk her self in this way, who are we to maybe screw it up by forcing things? She does have the benefit of hindsight."

Kate realized Sayid had recognized her, had seen through to her heart practically the minute he walked in the room. His questions had really been aimed at showing the same to Jack.

"I'll be outside," Sayid said, "getting some air. Come up when you decide what's next."

Jack sat next to her as she dried her eyes for the third time in an hour. She could tell he wanted to put an arm around her and comfort her but was hesitating, seemingly realizing he was a good part of the cause of her current misery.

"I'm sorry," he said, "You're not the only thing that's happened to us this week that's been pretty unbelievable. It's all so… messed up." He began to say more but then shook his head, faced forward and was silent. She'd barely heard anything he'd said after 'I'm sorry,' she was so busy trying to remember if she had ever heard those words out of his mouth before.

"It's okay, it's nothing new," she said, her voice still low and heavy with the emotion of what Sayid had forced her to face. "We are almost never exactly on the same page. Always been our biggest problem."

"How about that ends today," he turned back toward her slightly, "for good?"

"I would love that," she said, "so much. You have no idea."

Then she reached up and kissed him for the first time, for the second time in her life. But this time there was no pulling away and running off through the jungle. There was only the way that their mouths and their arms fit together and the familiar rhythm of the way he kissed her back, slid one arm down behind her so he could both pull her to him and push against her at the same time.

She started to drop back on the bench and was confused when he stopped her.

"We haven't," he looked unsure how to say it, "You and I haven't done this here yet. Plus I just doubted you, locked you in a safe. And Sayid is standing about twenty yards away waiting for us."

"Right," she said, "Don't bring him here next time, okay?"

"Yeah, was just thinking that," he said as she stood, re-twisting her hair into a fresh ponytail. "So, what exactly is next?"

"I have a couple of hours left," Kate said, "And I could really use some help from you both. We need to go push a small plane off of a cliff."

**Los Angeles  
><strong>**42 Panorama Crest**

Miles and Evan each held their breath as Miles punched in the security code at Kate's house. Sawyer had only rattled it off to him the once over the phone as they were heading their separate ways. Sawyer had sounded confused, even a little concerned, when Miles told him Ben wanted him to head for L.A. but Miles just chalked it up to how much was going on and what Annie and Sawyer had to deal with next.

The door opened silently, no alarm. Evan gave a little whoop of joy and headed straight back to 'his' room, formerly Claire's room, intent on getting Joop settled in and getting them both some food.

"For a skinny kid," Miles shouted to him, "You are quite food-focused, Evan. Better watch that, it'll only catch up with you when your metabolism shifts."

He went to toss his keys on the table between the front door and the living room and saw a red light blinking rapidly on the phone. Miles stood staring at it for a second, thought 'what the hell, someone has to….' and pressed play.

"Kate, it's Carole Littleton," His ears heard it but he couldn't believe it, took a half step back in reaction. "I'm fine. Aaron's fine. Please don't think horribly of me, but my daughter is not there with you, not the daughter I know. She'd never hurt Aaron on purpose but I'm afraid of what she will do. And I'm convinced whatever it is you all are going through, well it's never going to be over is it? I can give him a really good life. I promise I will. I'll get in touch someday, but leave us alone until then, please, if you love him."

"No way," Miles muttered it, shoved his hands in his pockets at the clicking sound of her hanging up. "Poor Claire, you can't catch a break, can you?"

He had a mind to turn around to go tell Evan when he heard another beep and the next message started to play.

"It's Cassidy, Kate, are you there? Pick up…" Another pause, another promise of something ahead he was pretty sure he didn't want to hear. Miles started pacing in place almost. "Okay, call me, all right? I didn't want to put you in the middle of this, but Sawyer came to see us for that long weekend the other week and barely spent a day and a half and suddenly he had to take off. Now Clem's moping around the house convinced it's something she did and I'm getting angrier every day I see her so miserable. He isn't up to what I think he's up to again, is he? Dammit, I really could kick him. Call me."

There weren't even any words for them, the thoughts swirling around Miles' mind now. He just stood staring at the phone until he heard the knock at the door.

He turned right, stared at the door, didn't move.

"Evan… could you get that?" He asked loudly, even though he was about a yard and a half away from it. "I really don't think I want to."

"Kind of busy," Evan yelled from the kitchen and Miles heard the clang of pans and plates, the refrigerator opening. He sighed deeply and walked to the door, turned the knob and opened it just enough to peer out. A curvy woman with a straight face in a business suit held an I.D. badge up to his face.

"California Department of Parole," she said, "Can I please speak with Ms. Austen? I need proof she hasn't left the state in violation of her court agreement."

"Of course," Miles said, "of course you do."

**The Island  
><strong>**Iteration 4 of 5 via the Weather Vane  
><strong>**Cliff-side, near the Beechcraft crash site**

Kate was glad they only had a short hike to the site of the Nigerian drug plane, it meant more time to forge up the hill behind it and scope out the options.

"I think we have to push it down. There's no way to pull it back here to level ground, right?"

Jack's expression suggested he wasn't sure at all. He crouched down to try to see how it was tilting. Sayid walked back and forth the length of it, doing about the same.

"I take it from what you told us on the way over," Sayid said, "That the plane falls not after someone climbs into it but pretty quickly after they move toward the cockpit. So yes, that suggests weak support out front. It'll be a lot easier to push than to pull."

"That's what we'll do then," Kate said. "This plane can serve as a 'sign from above' from the ground just as well as from up here."

"Who takes it as a sign?" Sayid asked. "And who would have died in it?"

"Does it really matter as long as they don't?" She asked and he frowned, but nodded ever so slightly in appreciation of her practicality.

They used large rocks to make the plane crash. Sayid and Jack collected several from the jungle and then struggled together to half toss, half push them out far enough to weigh the branches down. Kate had worried how they'd accomplish it safely but it turned out to be the work of just a few minutes. They stood enjoying a silent moment of accomplishment, watching the dust settle, then went slowly back down the hill behind them.

Jack and Sayid were ready to start hiking back, but stopped when Kate cut around toward the plane rather than away from it, reached into a side window and pulled out the handset of a two-way radio. She hit the key switch, heard the squelching sound of the radio working and put the handset right back.

"I thought you said the radio wouldn't work?" Sayid asked.

"I said it couldn't help you get rescued," Kate said, "Not that it wouldn't be of any use. It will."

Sayid said nothing, looked to Jack, who stood with his hands on his hips and shrugged.

"Need to know basis," Jack said.

"I guess we don't need to know." Sayid finished the thought.

* * *

><p>Sayid took his leave of them at a spot where he could turn toward the beach camp.<p>

"Wait," Kate pulled a folded piece of paper from her pack, held it out to him. "Can you read this, and keep anyone from seeing it? Something I did earlier to help out, well it's going to prevent a meeting that needs to happen. Hopefully this time it'll happen more on your terms. Just be careful."

Sayid took the paper, but his eyes didn't leave hers.

"Shall I tear it up and eat it after I read it?"

She grinned at the barest hint of a smile she saw at the corners of his lips, shook her head.

"Tossing it on the fire will do fine," she said.

Sayid looked to Jack.

"See you back there. And Kate... well I'll see you back there too."

* * *

><p>They made it to the Weather Vane with just five minutes to spare.<p>

"Want me to wait with you?" Jack kept walking to the side entrance, opened the door of the hatch but Kate stopped him.

"No, it's okay. Maybe next time, all right? I'm so tired, I could use a minute alone and it'd just be more stressful on me to watch you watching me leave."

"Is this safe?" He nodded toward the hatch, "for you, for the baby?"

She shook her head.

"Probably not. Someone you'll meet eventually was using it and didn't stick a landing. He ended up all the way down an air shaft and almost didn't make it out."

"That's great," Jack said. "Beautiful. Next time I ask a question like that, could you make a mental note to tell me a happy lie?"

"Okay," she laughed, then looked surprised. "Oh wait, next time… I almost forgot. Your note," she handed him a piece of paper and he unfolded it to see two dates written down. "That's when I'm coming back. Meet me here? It's easier than chasing you around the beach and avoiding everyone else."

"Smart," he said, set it back in her hand. "But keep it. I've got them memorized."

"Are you sure?" She asked, started to hand it back to him.

"I'm sure," she just caught his eyes as he said it, went silent at what she saw in them.

"You're so different from her. So much more… " Jack said it so quietly she barely heard it, didn't finish the sentence.

"Don't hold it against her. She hasn't gone through what I've been through," Kate said. "Hopefully she never will."

* * *

><p>Kate's trip home was uneventful even though she was a little nervous, trying not to think about air ducts or bad landings. She got up off the floor as soon as she had her balance, walked to the kitchen counter and scrawled out a note for Richard and Walt.<p>

"Wake me up when you get back. Let's catch up."

Then she fell into the bottom bunk bed, flipped up the top of the covers and was asleep before they settled over her.


	27. The Candidates

**42 Panorama Crest  
>9 PM Los Angeles Time<strong>

There was a time in Miles' life when the amount of strange and ominous news he'd just gotten would have sent him into a moody spiral for days. Now, it just pushed him to the back yard and Kate's pool where he stripped to his underwear and did laps until he couldn't swim anymore. When he pulled himself out of the deep end he saw Evan sitting in a deck chair a few feet away, pointing to a bathrobe and a towel on the chair next to him.

"Gee thanks," Miles' tone was mostly appreciative with a touch of sardonic. He held up the robe. "I think I could swim in this thing if I tried. Sawyer's or Jack's?"

"Hmm?" Evan was staring at the water. "Oh, I don't know, I'm sure." He brought his focus back to Miles. "You were working pretty hard out there, it looked like."

"Positive stress relief," Miles said. "While you were doing what the hell ever you were doing I was getting three shocks to the system in about a minute flat. You won't even believe it. "

"Try me and I'll tell you," Evan said, taking off his suit jacket and loosening his tie. He was still dressed from this morning's trip from Ann Arbor back to L.A. and was wishing there were casual Fridays for Others trainees.

"Let's call Ben at the Lamp Post," Miles started to reach for his phone. "He needs to hear it all, too," but Evan picked the phone up before he could, barely even looking at it as he did, and not noticing the 'you didn't really just do that' look on Miles' face at all.

"Miles, you've known Sawyer for years, I've only known him a few days," Evan said. "Is one of the things you just heard about him? Is it what stressed you out the most?"

"Yeah, actually," Miles said. "Why?"

"Because this is why we're really here," he reached in his pocket, handed Miles Annie's note and watched his face as he read it, gauging his expression, trying to decide how much to say and how soon.

"Well no insult to her," Miles said, "But she hasn't known him any longer than you have. What does one dark glance as someone's walking in a door really mean?"

"Not much," Evan said, "until you add this."

He picked up a plastic bag from the floor, one that had clearly been recently duct taped to something else. He pulled a wad of cash and two long, thin portfolios out of it, handed them to Miles who started counting.

"Cash, bank accounts, CDs. There's like eight million dollars here…" Miles was saying it under his breath, as much to himself as to Evan. Miles guessed he'd already added it up.

"It was taped to a pipe over his room," Evan said. "And I'm guessing it's up-front money and not the whole payday."

"So who's he conning?" Miles asked and Evan flinched, surprised he had to say it.

"What information does Sawyer have that's worth millions?" Evan asked. "He knows what we're up to and how Hurley's preparing. He knows The Searcher cracked the code to finding the island anytime it wants, and is far less protected than the Lamp Post," he saw it sinking in, felt like hell for finishing the sentence. "He's conning us."

Miles sat back, arms folded, said nothing for a minute. Evan thought he'd never seen someone look so surprised, angry and disappointed at the same time.

"Who am I to judge?" Miles finally spit out a few words. "I got in for money, too."

It wasn't a funny moment, not at all, but Evan smiled just a little.

"I'm sure what we're paying you doesn't hurt," he said, "But I don't think I believe that Miles. I think you got back in to help your friends, too. I think that's why you're feeling the way you are right now."

He wanted to give him some time, some privacy, and started to get up and head inside.

"Sit down," Miles said, and it seemed one of the emotions had taken top priority. "We don't have time to waste. Call Ben."

**The Lamp Post Station**

**Los Angeles**

"There's something we're missing," Ben said, peering at one of the four computer screens along the wall at the Lamp Post station. Eloise was busy on another of them, pulling in the latest information Penny's tracking station had sent along.

"Why do you think so? We have a boat," She traced over a blip on a map on the computer screen with one fingernail. "It's doing circles in the ocean about a day out from the island. We expect it's both keeping an eye out for directions, and waiting for reinforcements," She looked at Ben, "And those are likely coming on the boat the DI leaders will board with Sawyer and Annie in a couple of days. So what do you feel is missing?"

"This one," Ben pointed to the map, "It's too…simple. Not a lot of tracking equipment, computers, not enough people. It's barely more than a glorified fishing boat. And the D.I. leaders – well, whether they were telling Annie the truth or just shooting smoke at her, I think you and I both have a sense that they're big but not big the way we are. They're pushing all-in on this hand and if they lose it they're done. So they must be planning another way in."

"The Weather Vane?" Eloise asked.

"Maybe," Ben sounded like he'd considered that already, discarded it. "Not so likely with Richard back running things. He says he has it well locked down -no one who's not authorized is getting through it as far as he's concerned."

The phone next to Eloise rang.

"That'll be Evan," she said, put it on speaker.

"I'll get Hurley," Ben reached for a keyboard. "It feels like the answer's so very right in front of us."

**Dining Hall**

**7:30 am Island Time**

"Remember when it was a dozen of us around a campfire?" Bernard asked, sipping on his coffee, nodding toward tables full of new arrivals also having breakfast.

He and Rose and the Reyes' were wrapping up their meal, after which he and Hurley's dad would jump in the outriggers with some of the new people and go wait for Frank and the even newer reinforcements. Rose and Carmen were in charge of overseeing the renovations and the outfitting of the barracks, making sure everyone would have somewhere to stay before night fell.

"I know," David Reyes picked up several plates and started toward the sink. "And they're working fast. I couldn't believe it when our phone rang this morning and it was Hurley at the Flame. It's strange when a phone feels like a luxury."

Carmen started to say something but was distracted by three familiar faces walking in at the far entrance. She started waving Kate and Richard over, but Walt had already found them with his eyes, was practically bouncing over with excitement to see them and to have someone to tell his stories to.

"Our wanderers have returned, and in one piece each!" Carmen smiled as Walt sat next to Rose, briefly ducked his head to her shoulder in teenaged-boy-hug fashion. Kate sat next to Bernard across from them, smiling but leaning heavily on the table, looking tired. Richard kept walking toward the kitchen, gave Kate a wave that said wordlessly that he'd bring them all back some food.

"What you're putting yourself through," Rose said quietly to Kate as Walt told the Reyes' his traveler's tales, "I hope it's worth it."

"It is," she said, sat up straighter as if to prove she wasn't beat. "It is."

"Have you thought maybe about talking with Eloise? Get some advice?"

"Eloise?" Kate looked as confused as she was turned off by the idea. "After how I tricked her into thinking Daniel was still alive when we needed rescuing? I'm guessing I'm the last person she'd help."

"She's been through as much in her life as we have," Rose said, "and more. And her son really did write the book on the kind of thing you're dealing with. I think she might surprise you."

"I'll keep it in mind, Rose," Kate said, fiddling with the salt and pepper shakers as Richard called Walt over to help him carry the food back. "I will."

They looked up to see the two of them headed their way, weighed down with plates and Richard pretending to on the verge of dropping one or the other of his just to make Walt laugh- which was working perfectly.

"He's so good with Walt, isn't he?" Carmen asked and Kate nodded, eyes wide.

"He really is, " She said. "Who'd have guessed it, huh? Although he did help raise Alex…."

The rest of them had their breakfast then and Rose and Bernard stayed to catch them up on things while the Reyes' got the day's plans in motion. Bernard told Richard they'd have a total of 30 new sets of hands on deck by sundown, or the next morning.

"Is Frank bringing more after that," Richard asked, "or staying here?"

"You'll have to ask Hurley for sure," Bernard said, "But I think he'll stay now. Hurley's calling all hands, or at least most hands, back to deck. I don't know what he's been discussing with Ben and the rest but I get the sense time's running short."

Richard just looked at him, nodded, and Kate started fiddling with the utensils again.

"Speaking of Hurley," Bernard said, as Hurley poked his head in the door.

"Walt," Hurley called across the room, "Vincent's waiting at your bungalow, think you could take him for a walk?" Hurley chuckled as Vincent blew past him, nearly creating a gust through the door. "Don't go more than 200 steps from the barracks," Hurley yelled after him. "These barracks. This world. Please? Thank you."

He poked his head back inside.

"Richard, would you give Kate and me about twenty minutes, join us at my bungalow then?"

Richard nodded and Kate got up and started to pick up her plates, put them down when Rose waved her toward the door.

"I think we can get those for you dear," she said. "You have bigger things to worry about right now."

It was only a three minute long walk back to Hurley's bungalow, and so Kate waited to ask until they were sitting in metal lawn chairs next to each other on the top step of his porch.

"What?" she asked, a little humorously, but with a touch of a challenge, "What do you want to say that you can't say in front of Richard?"

"A couple of things," Hurley looked off into the distance, "tough one first, okay?" he asked and she nodded as he collected himself and figured out how to begin. "I just talked with Miles, and the California parole people came to your house. They left a warning, but if you don't show up there within two weeks you're in huge trouble. And we both know you can't do that. So your house, your car, your money, they'll all be gone- and you'll be a fugitive again soon."

"Oh," Kate said simply and they sat in silence a moment.

"That's it?" Hurley asked. "Just, 'oh'?"

"Well, I knew it was probably going to happen, Hurley, I got ten years parole on condition I stayed in the state and I had many left to serve. Seems like someone tipped them off, tried to maximize the damage, yes – but they'd have figured it out before I could get back there. It's okay," she sat forward, picked at the nails of one hand with the fingers of the other and stared at the ground. "We'll figure that out later. We've got worse to deal with right now, don't you think?"

"Right," he said and there was silence again. "And that's what brings me to point number two. I'm going to ask you and Richard for full details on what you all found on the other islands, how they might be of use to us, but you do know that I'm pretty much giving you free reign there for your own peace of mind, right?"

Kate looked up sideways at him slightly, nodded just a little.

"And I'll do everything I can to let you keep doing what you feel you need to do. But you apparently need a reminder of what you mean here, too. So just know that pretty soon I might ask you to do something you really don't want to and you're going to have to agree. You don't have any choice because, well, you two are my first candidates."

"Us two?" Kate started to ask and then gasped as she took his point.

"You and your son, you're my first two candidates," Hurley said. "Before Richard, before Ben, before Walt," he locked gazes with her now and she found herself fighting back tears. "You're numbers one and two on my wheel. And I really need you to keep that in mind over the next couple of weeks, okay?"

Kate nodded, tears rolling down her face and pulled her chair over to him, put her head on his shoulder.

"Is that it?" she asked.

"No," Hurley said, "I've got one more piece of news, but it can wait until Richard gets here," He put his arm around her shoulder and didn't object to her unceremoniously wiping her eyes on both her shirt and his. "It'll all be okay, though, it'll be fine."

"Will it?" Kate asked.

"I have no freaking idea, really," Hurley said, which got them both laughing and helped them catch their breath.

"This is our last quiet quarter of an hour together until it all happens, isn't it?" Kate asked.

"Probably so," Hurley said. "Nice day for it though," he pulled her up to look with him at the barracks, the sun hot in the sky and a sweet breeze blowing. "So we might as well enjoy it. Want some coffee?"

"Hurley, I shouldn't," Kate said, "But yeah, I would kill for some coffee."


	28. Take Another Little Piece of my Heart

**Ala Wai Marina**

**Oahu, Hawaii**

"Do you agree that it can be selective?" The cosmologist asked, leaning his forearms on the rail of The Searcher, picking at the label on his beer and watching a couple of other boats pull in and out of the slips nearby.

"What, because some people think it's either done with you or not done with you?" Desmond stood with his back to the rail, alternating his gaze between his guest and the control room one floor up where Penny and Charlie were at the moment. A few yards away their other guest, the psychologist Hurley and Ben had them pick up in Hawaii as well, was sitting with his nose deeply planted in a professional journal. He'd barely moved the last half hour except to flip the pages.

"Exactly. Do you not believe after all you've seen that it does make choices?"

"I dunno, Max," Desmond shrugged, took a sip of his own beer. "I tend to think people just over interpret things. Sometimes I wonder if I've done so myself."

"How about the fact that it moves frequently in space? Do you know any non-living thing on the planet that moves independently of an outside force that propels or, in the case of fire, feeds it?" Desmond turned, looked down at the water too, didn't reply and Max Tegmark laughed, not at Desmond so much as with him.

Max had a boyish face and dark, longish hair and a way of moving and talking that made him seem more Desmond's age than a dozen or so older. He had been a D.I. scientist back when the Weather Vane was a concept and even worked on it awhile as a doctoral student. But there'd been some philosophical falling out, and since the early '90s he'd been a consultant for the Others.

"Are you two really discussing what I think you are?" Desmond heard Penny coming down the steps, turned now to see her with Charlie on one hip. "Are you really picking at the question of 'what is the island'? Because I don't think there's any boat trip long enough to answer that one."

"You win, Penny," Max said. "That is the only thing anyone has said this afternoon that's absolutely correct."

"If that's settled, then, I hope you won't mind if I steal Desmond away for a few minutes," she looked up at him, a touch of concern in her eyes that hadn't been there a moment before. "Ben wants to talk with us about something before we leave."

"Of course," Max said, and they headed back up, Penny stealing a glance behind her.

"Do you find Dr. Scharff odd?" She asked. "The psychologist planted in the deck chair? Unlike our Max, he seems to have very little interest in the other humans. That's usually something a psychologist really needs, curiosity, but he seems like he's already made up his mind."

"Maybe he just really needs a vacation," Desmond said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder, opening the door to the control room for them.

Penny's crew was out prepping for the trip back. They had the room to themselves.

"Ben, we're back, go ahead," Penny yelled as they both pulled chairs up to the small computer bank against one inside wall of the boat.

"Time is short, so I'll keep this brief," Ben sounded stressed and they each looked up, seeing if the other had noticed it. "I'm headed back to the island within an hour. Hurley needs me there more than he needs me at the Lamp Post, and part of the reason is that boat you dodged on the way in. We think it's a decoy, something they're hoping will keep our attention and maybe make us miss their real avenues of attack."

"Did you say 'avenues," Penny asked, "as in plural?"

"Yes, " Ben said. "We think the main D.I. leaders will be coming in on a larger boat, and taking Sawyer and Annie with them. They may have much more sophisticated systems, both for hiding themselves from your tracking station and piping into your data that you'll use to find your way back. And here's the important thing: We have no idea if they'll try to tap in from a distance or take The Searcher. If they're smart, they won't leave an able adversary alone, so…. Hurley wants to send some hired guns to make the trip back with you all."

Penny looked at Desmond, sure he wasn't going to like the idea but was surprised at what she heard next.

"Send them," Des said, "But give us tonight to talk. We have some decisions to make," he said, looking squarely at Charlie on Penny's lap, "about who exactly will take the trip back, okay?"

"Of course," Ben said and there was a pause, "But make it quick and plan to leave tomorrow, whoever that means. We know they're planning to set off in under 48 hours. The sooner you go, the greater the chances they won't catch up with you."

"What aren't you telling us, Ben," Penny asked, feeling out what she was hearing in his voice. "What else do you think is going on?"

"A lot," Ben said, "But not much else that affects you or that you can do anything about, so I'll only burden you with one piece of it: Their leadership may be coming in by boat, but we don't think it's their main plan of attack. It's too easy for us to fight back against. So they must have something else in the works and we're trying to figure out what. If you have any ideas, anything…. let us know."

Ben didn't bother with a goodbye and Desmond noticed Penny was staring at him very straight faced as the line went dead.

"You aren't seriously thinking about telling me you want Charlie and me to stay behind here in Hawaii while you go?" She asked him. "What about never leaving each other again?"

"After that?" He nodded toward the phone but didn't break her gaze. "How can you even think about taking him on this trip?"

"Because, Desmond," she said, "No where is safe, until we win this thing, until we beat them. Until then, it's really just geography and no one piece of the planet is very safe at all. That's why we went back, isn't it? Do you think they won't come look for us, to stomp us out, too, if they get you? They'd better, if they do, or they can know I'll spend the rest of my life hunting them each down with Hurley's help and killing them personally."

Desmond leaned his elbows on the console, in misery, his head in his hands. He didn't want to acknowledge she was right.

"Look, I'm sorry, but if there's a time to be blunt it's now. We don't have to decide anything this second though," Penny said, "Let's go have lunch with our guests, wait for the guys to get back and we'll talk. They all need to know the risks and make an informed decision for themselves."

"All right," Desmond sat up, but didn't look any happier. "We'll talk. We'll talk."

**Hurley's Bungalow**

**The Island**

Hugo sat in his living room, more amused than anything, and watched Richard and Kate get just about in each other's faces sniping and snapping in frustration. It had all started out so well. Kate had given them both her update on Island Iteration 4 of 5, her sense of just how close it was in every way to their own, what she had told Sayid and Jack and how the Weather Vane on that side might be of use to them in a pinch.

Then it was Richard's turn to share what he and Walt had found on the other four island iterations, and that's when things went downhill.

The problem wasn't Iteration 3 of 5, he was happy to tell them both the story of how they found The Heart of the Island, but no signs that any human had ever lived there – and by that he meant not just now, but really ever.

"Did you go back far enough?" Hurley asked. "Are you sure?"

"I'd say so," Richard nodded, just the hint of a smile in his eyes. "On our last stop there, it hadn't actually been an island for long. Ask Walt about the wooly mammoth tooth in his pocket. We found it a few hours after it died. We went way the hell back."

"Wow," Hurley's eyes were thrilled, brown circles, "You have GOT to take me there when this is all over, seriously Richard."

He was also glad to tell them next about Iteration 2 of 5, the place from which the freighter people with the orange blood had found their way to them somehow.

"I'm convinced that connection is proof the Weather Vane can make mistakes," Richard said. "It's only supposed to search out places substantially like our own, but this one is nothing like here. The island has a heart, but it's not a good heart. The air's barely breathable: Those soldiers must have been half intoxicated, breathing ours. The people, well, suffice it to say they're not human in their customs or ethics, they're more…" he sought for something quickly relatable. "Think early Klingon, at best. Vogon at worst."

Hurley flinched.

"Even us, dude? Did you see any of us there?"

"Yes," Richard said. "Be glad you'll never meet them. As I say, a huge mistake. We sealed it off entirely, that connection is gone for good."

"You can do that?" Kate asked, a flicker of concern in her eyes that wasn't lost on either Hurley or Richard.

"Yes, but don't worry," Richard said, "I'm not suggesting doing that lightly. Especially because of what we found on 1 of 5 and 5 of 5." He looked down, then around the room as if looking for supporters for what he was about to say next. "And that information, I'd really like to tell only Hurley."

That's when all heck had broken loose, between Kate's exhaustion and all of their frayed nerves. Hurley watched them argue it out a few more seconds and realized this must be what it was like for a parent to watch two of their beloved children fighting: It was comical and a little heartbreaking at the same time. Then he put his fingers in his mouth and whistled so loudly he couldn't believe Vincent didn't come charging in the room.

"Okay, everyone count to five," he said, a laugh still in his voice, and Kate and Richard sat back in their chairs, both looking at the ground. "Richard, I'm guessing you want to tell me in private not to hide anything or because you don't trust Kate, but because you have information that you think I might want to keep from most everybody. Because maybe it suggests things about what we're about to be dealing with here on our island, right?

Hurley got a nod from him.

"Exactly right," Richard said.

"I appreciate you being careful" Hurley said, "But here's something you need to know: Since you left I've named my first two candidates, and they're Kate and her baby. So you and Ben are my second and third but she's totally in the circle of trust, man. Talking to her is talking to me."

"Oh," Richard looked surprised and, much to Kate's surprise, maybe a little happy to hear it. "Well that's different. I didn't know."

"And based on some flashes I've had from the island, I think I can almost guess where you're going, but tell us," Hurley sat back and Richard composed his thoughts.

"Islands 1 and 5," he said, "They're as identical to here as what Kate described, with one big exception in each case. On 1 of 5, Claire drowned shortly before rescue arrived. Desmond didn't get to her in time when the current dragged her out. On 5 of 5, Sawyer was never on the plane at all. He didn't get taken into police custody after that bar fight in Australia. He died in it."

"What do you think that means?" Kate asked. "How does it relate to us? Is there news about Claire?"

"No," Hurley said. "But there will be very soon. And Kate, the other thing I told you I'd wait on until Richard got here: It's about Sawyer."

"Oh no," Kate said, her eyes darkening. "What?"

She looked stunned but, Hurley thought as he started to tell her the bad news, it was like she already kind of knew- not so much in her consciousness as in her heart, another piece of which was visibly breaking in front of his eyes as he spoke.

**Kate's House**

**Los Angeles**

"We're like starfish in a tidal pool," Miles said, setting his suitcase just inside the front door, taking Evan's from him and setting it nearby. It was the first thing he'd said since they'd started getting ready to leave.

"How exactly," Evan was doing a circuit of the living room and kitchen, looking for anything he might have left behind. "Are we like star fish in a tidal pool?"

"We keep getting pushed away from each other by these huge forces of nature: Scattered all over the world, trying to keep our heads above the current so we don't suck in a lung full of water, no idea when we might get crushed between the rocks or eaten by a seagull. Then, there's a moment of peace. It's great, it's sunny, it's full of hope and that really yummy beach smell. And then, whoosh."

"Whoosh?" Evan asked, "What's the 'whoosh' about?"

"Who knows what it's about?" Miles asked, waving an arm in the air at fate as much as at him. "It's just this rush of energy that comes out of nowhere, man, and bam, we're all pulled back to that freaking island."

"Well technically, you're going back but I'm staying at the Lamp Post to help Eloise, " Evan said, "But I take your point. You have to admit, it, though, it beats being a sea cucumber."

"Why does it beat being a sea cucumber?"

"They just sit there, dug so far into their little rock homes that they never move. They get buffeted by the tide, scratched up by the starfish, eaten by the gulls just like us - and they're not even in the game, really, are they? " Evan said.

"I could live with being a sea cucumber." Miles said.

"Fine, you can be once you help Hurley save the island. Are we ready? I don't want to go wake up Joop until we're ready."

"Yeah, I'm set," Miles said. "Do I really have to take him with me through the Weather Vane?"

"Yes," Evan started toward his room to get him. "But you'll only need to be his caretaker for a grand total of about a minute and a half. Hurley texted me: He's putting Walter in charge of him for now, since Richard and he are done their inventory. "

"It's Walt," Miles said. "No one calls him Walter. Aren't you afraid of sending your ancient ape to a war zone?" Miles asked, not sure why he cared but finding he kind of did. "Could get nasty there soon."

"Yeah, but Walt will protect him," Evan came back out with a sleepy Joop on his hip, his head drooping over his shoulder. "And I believe he's definitely better off a starfish than the sea cucumber he's been the past thirty years."

Miles nodded, opened the door, stepped out with their suitcases and let loose with a yell so loud it nearly made Evan drop Joop.

"What the hell?" Evan asked, set him down, walked them both slowly outside to see Miles on his knees with his ear down near the ground right over Claire's nose and mouth looking for signs of life.

She was lying flat on her back, dressed in grey sweats with black piping looking like she'd just been out for a run. Her cheeks were pink, her hair combed and tied back neatly, and as Miles sat back on his heels, Evan could see her eyes trying to open, snapping closed again at the rush of light to her pupils. She was clearly out of it but looking better, really, than the day she'd disappeared.

"Should we take her to the hospital?" Evan asked.

"No," Miles pointed to the driveway. "Get Joop settled, and help me get her to the car. She's coming with us. Claire's going back too."


	29. Should I Stay or Should I Go?

"Why don't we ask him?" Walt was tugging on Hurley's sleeve, but Hurley was deep in conversation with Richard, barely noticed and didn't respond. He had just asked Richard if he'd left full notes about the other islands on the computer in his bungalow. Richard was nodding yes, explaining how he and Walt had looked both backward and forward, checking on how events played out on each.

"I know you'll want to look that all over," Richard said, "Before you make any decisions on how to proceed."

Walt was still trying to grasp what he'd heard them all discussing when he got back from walking Vincent. He couldn't believe it, and wondered why they did.

"Why don't we ask him?" Walt gave up on Hurley, dropped back a step and asked Kate. Her arms were folded and her blank stare had been fixed on either the ground or some random point in space since they'd all gotten up and stepped out of Hurley's place.

Kate felt like she was having an out of body experience. She felt more hollow than numb, but a little of both. She wasn't sure if it was about her travels or the realization Sawyer had never been who she thought he was. To do this after everything they'd all been through?

It was like she'd been wearing some sort of special glasses for the last three years but didn't know it and now someone had yanked them off of her head and she saw him for what he really was. But the sad part? He'd told them all along who he was, had never lied about it at all. Well, she thought, he hadn't lied about it- until now.

"What?" She finally heard Walt. "You shouldn't have to worry about this," she said softly.

"That's not fair," Walt looked up at her, nose wrinkled. "I came back to help, and I am helping. And I think we should call Sawyer and ask him what's going on. If we don't, how do we know he's up to anything? Maybe he has some great plan to trick them and not us?"

"I wish that were true, Walt," she said, set a hand on his shoulder. "But if it were he could tell us so anytime and he hasn't. And he's taken a lot of money from them, the kind of money you'd expect to get if you're helping someone win a war."

Walt shook his head, and his expression didn't change.

"I don't think he'd let them hurt us," he said. "Do you?"

"You know what?" Kate said, "I've been thinking the same thing, Walt. Maybe I only believe it because I have to, but I think you, me, Hurley – he's probably made a deal for us to try to protect us. But I wouldn't want to be Richard or Ben if we lose," she said, "Or Hurley's parents, or Penny and Desmond, or even Rose and Bernard," Walt flinched, was silent for a minute.

"What happens to Sawyer if we win?" Walt asked.

"That's up to Hurley," she said, "But Walt, if we are on the losing side, then what happens to all of us—it's up to them."

"We have to go," Hurley said and Kate looked up, saw him looking west, knew he meant to the Weather Vane. "Miles and Ben are supposed to be here in the hour. Will you go get some sleep?"

Kate agreed, but pulled him slightly aside as Richard and Walt started walking.

"Hurley, can I make a phone call from my bungalow?"

"Yes," he smiled, "Dial zero, and new recruits are standing by at the Flame to patch through your call," he squeezed her arm as he headed out. "Isn't that amazing? Say hi to Eloise for me. Don't go anywhere until I'm back, okay? Seriously, get some sleep."

"I will, I promise," she folded her arms again, shivering with exhaustion in the 80 degree sunshine. "I will."

Annie stood in the window of her motel room, her nerves so amped up her ears were ringing. She was fighting the urge to run. The sun was setting on the other side of the building, the sky turning purple in front of her.

It wasn't the room that was fueling the bad feelings. It nice, a whole lot nicer than a lot of the places she'd stayed in her globetrotting years. The carpet was spotless, the bay window in front of her had a comfortable little seat and the furniture was new. But it felt like a cell that was closing in on itself a few inches every minute she didn't open the door and leave.

Tomorrow, she and Sawyer and several D.I. leaders were going to get on a ship that would set out mid-afternoon with the sole task of finding the Searcher and stealing its most valuable asset: Data from its computers that would lead them to the island. If she was right, if Sawyer had fed the D.I. everything he knew, then she was pretty much simply a hostage already - or would be, if she didn't run right now.

Annie looked down at the cell phone in her hands. Had Evan told them about her suspicions? If he had, why hadn't they reached out to her, Hurley, Ben? Did they believe her?

She was still looking down at it when it rang and she nearly flung it at the window in shock. She looked at it, saw the word 'blocked' on the caller ID.

"Hello?" she started pacing, heard silence and then Ben.

"I owe you an apology," he said, and she went from wired and scared to weak with relief. She sat in the window, her nose close to the glass as if she could look out and see him there. "I should have recognized you, Annie, known you for who you are. But old habits die hard and, well, it was easier to doubt you than to face how terrifying it was to actually see you again."

"I know," she said. "I knew that. Where are you?"

"I'm back on the island," He was sitting near the computer bank at the Weather Vane, the lights from the machines and the bunks all that were illuminating the room. "Hurley and the rest are bringing Claire to the barracks. She turned up in L.A. today. She's very out of it but she's alive. We brought her back with us."

"I'm glad for them. I'm sure that's a huge relief," Annie said. "Ben, did you call to say anything else?"

"Yes. I wanted to tell you that if you want to go, if you have the chance to get away tonight and you want to then you should."

"Does Hurley know you're saying that?"

"No," there was something like a smile in his voice. "Hurley is getting more…. Jacobean every day. He's leaving it up to us to do what we know we should. And I know you need to hear that it's okay to go if that's what our instincts are telling you to do."

"But if I leave…"

"If you leave, the whole deck of cards gets thrown up in the air. Right now we know there's something we're missing, but at least we know something, like when you're headed this way, what they're after. If you run they may start over and regroup."

"You'll be even more in the dark," she said, and the walls moved in a touch more. "Do you think they'll kill Sawyer if I go?"

"Maybe," Ben's voice went cold. "He's given them most everything he can and he's not nearly as useful a hostage as you are after what he's done. Let's put it this way: He needs you right now a whole lot more than you need him. There's no way to know what will happen if you run, Annie. But there's no knowing what will happen if you don't, either. So if you do we'll understand."

"Okay," she stood, started pacing again, but more slowly now. "Okay."

"And Annie," he said. "In case we don't see each other again for some reason, I have to say something else. You grew up to be exactly the person I always imagined you would. Exactly."

She stopped, her free hand on the back of her head, her eyes squeezing back tears and her nose burning with them.

"Ben," she said, "I loved you. You know that, don't you? When we were kids?"

"Yes," he said, sounding suddenly weary. "But that kid has been gone a very long time."

"I know who you were back then and I know who you are now," she said. "The rest we can talk about when this is all over. Okay?"

"Okay," he said, "Be careful, Annie, whatever you do."

She had stood staring at the phone for nearly a minute after she hung up. Then she went and found her purse, picked up the two or three things she needed most and stuffed them in a bag and walked out the door.

She had gotten eight steps away when she heard him.

"Flying the coop?"

She turned and saw Sawyer walking back from the general direction of the little strip mall to the left of the motel. He had a bottle of bourbon in one hand and a grocery bag full of snacks in the other.

"I was going to the car to look for my cell phone, I think it fell on the floor," she said. "Doing some shopping?"

"I thought we'd have a little party," he waved the bottle slightly, and even though he was yards away she could practically feel his hand around her arm, or maybe her neck, pulling her back. "Celebrate today's victory and the con job ahead."

The nerve of him, to say that to her, to keep up the charade: She had to look down to hide her expression.

"No mixers?" she asked, and realized her acting skills had improved a little in the course of their trip. Her voice hadn't shaken at all.

"What are you, a girl or something?" He grinned.

"Fine," she said, "At least get us some ice."

She went to the car, pretended to look for her phone, waited until he was out of sight and walked back to the room.

She turned the key and the deadbolt slid open but she swore it sounded more like it was slamming shut. She walked back in her room, realizing there was no way out now.

Kate lay on the sofa in her bungalow waiting for the guys at the Flame to connect her call. The empty misery of this afternoon was gone and she felt calm and at home again. Even the baby seemed happy, doing little floppy-kicky things that made her smile.

It definitely wasn't her conversation with Eloise that had gotten her to this better place. That had been about as stressful as she'd expected. But Eloise had at least taken her call and answered her questions.

What to expect when she went back to the other island? Anything: Especially Course Correction, since she'd tried to help them but without letting them fully in on how to help themselves.

"Oh yes," Eloise had said, drawing out the 'oh' quite a lot. "Benjamin told me you're trying to take them through their time on their island step by step – trying not to change the things that will help them grow, only the ones that will kill them."

"And?" Kate asked when she heard nothing more coming.

"And have you forgotten," Eloise asked, "How hard it was for us to get a handful of you on an airplane? How close that seemingly simple thing came to not happening?"

"No," Kate had acknowledged. "I haven't."

"My advice, dear is this: If you want to save them, if you feel you'll get some cosmic retribution that way then you need to cut to the freaking chase or your work is doomed."

"How?" It wasn't what she'd called her for, but Kate knew in that moment that it might be the most important thing Eloise would ever tell her.

"When you go back, bring scuba gear, directions to the Looking Glass and Penny's cell phone number," Eloise said. "Get them all off that island fast and I mean all of them. Because if they leave anyone behind, well that's what keeps drawing you all back, isn't it," she said, "each other?"

Now Kate was waiting for call number two to go through, heard the click, click, click of it connecting.

"Hellllooooo?" It was the most drawn out, sleep-soaked, still-in-a-dream voice she'd ever heard and Kate both felt bad and had to restrain a laugh at the same time.

"Desmond? Oh, I am so sorry, I woke you up. That's what I get for having them dial your cell. What time is it there?"

"Time?" She could hear he was only starting to surface, to even know he actually had the phone in his hand. "It's not so late. We went to sleep before dark, we'll be traveling overnight some of us. Kate? Is it you?"

"Yes, and again, I'm so sorry, but I need your help. I need to know every detail of what happened when you swam down to meet Charlie in the Looking Glass. Can you tell me that?"

There was a pause and she almost wondered if he'd drifted back off.

"There's not so much to tell you beyond what I'm sure you've already heard," Desmond said, sounding sleepy still, but more like himself. "Mikhail shot those women and then we shot him. Then one of them-Bonnie, she told Charlie the passcode to shut down the jammer."

"That's it," Kate said. "I need that. What code did Charlie hit to shut it off?"

"Notes. They were notes, on a keypad like a phone keypad. From a song. Not the Beatles, who was it? An American band –the Beach Boys. It was the first notes of Good Vibrations."

"You're sure," Kate said, "The first notes, how many?"

"Yes," Desmond said, his voice a little heavier now with the recollection of what came after. "Yes, I'm sure. Let me think..."

There was another pause.

"Thirteen. It was the first thirteen notes. I can hear them."

"Thank you," she said, "so much."

"You're welcome. And can you do me a favor," Desmond said. "Can you call me back tomorrow? Because I'm gonna want to hear why the hell you wanted to know. But not now, 'cause I'll never remember."

"I will. I'll call you back as soon as I can, Des, and I'll let you know how you helped save a bunch of us all over again," she said.

She wasn't sure if he was even awake as she hung up, hit the light behind her, and set a hand on her stomach right where the flippity-flops were currently happening.

"Time to chill, baby," she said. "Big day tomorrow and tougher ones ahead of that. Let's sleep while we can."


	30. Three Ships and Two Kisses

**On Board the Searcher**

Desmond was half asleep as he dropped his phone on the nightstand. His conversation with Kate about the Looking Glass blended with a dream about The Searcher at sea on the waves. Except, he really had just been talking to Kate and the ship was actually moving. His eyes opened again. He was alone.

He sat up, sighed, rummaged around on the bed, the floor for his shorts and a tee shirt. He ducked his head into Charlie's half a bedroom and saw him sleeping deeply with one arm across his chest. Desmond watched him for a minute, went upstairs.

Penny was sitting back in a deck chair with both feet on the floor and her arms crossed lightly, gazing up at the almost full moon. He felt most of the fear and resulting frustration in him melt away as if the moonlight had burned it off.

"Penny, we're at sea?" He sat in the chair next to her, took her hand. "What the hell?"

"It's my fault," she said, "If anything happens it's on me."

"Child services might have an issue with that," he said, but with a trace of a sardonic smile. She shot him a look. "Did you ask the crew, the docs? Are they in?"

She nodded and he sat back too.

"When we win," Desmond finally said, "we should stay on the island. Let someone else run The Searcher. We've earned a few years' peace."

The pause was so long he wondered if she was annoyed with his demand.

"I'd like to start a school for the kids," she said. "There will only be more of them and they're going to need a school."

"Headmistress Penny," Desmond smiled as The Searcher sailed into the great unknown of what would actually happen next.

**The Island  
><strong>**6:30am**

Kate felt like it'd be a waste of their time to ask Richard or Walt to go to the Weather Vane with her just for the company or the comfort of it. They had a lot to do, too.

She set out just after dawn, putting the pack with its three air tanks and masks on her back. They were heavy but manageable and it was only a fifteen-minute trip over flat ground. She grabbed a 9mm and tucked it into her belt.

The walk there was peaceful with only the sound of her own feet in the grass and the occasional bird singing. It was early but it was also humid and she could practically smell the dew on the trees and plants: Her favorite kind of morning. She took her time, feeling rested and hopeful.

When she made it to the other side, she found she was still on her own: No Jack, no anyone. The lights in this Weather Vane were still on and it felt like it'd been visited in the month and a half since she'd left - yesterday. She dropped the pack, walked to the bank of computers. One was at the DOS prompt with request after request keyed in. She realized she should have told Sayid the only things this hatch could do were forecast the weather and connect places. It would have saved him some time. At the end of the console there was a piece of notebook paper with Jack's handwriting all over one side - a long list of questions, ones she expected were for her.

When half an hour went by and she was still alone, she set out for the beach camp.

It was nightfall on this side and she wished she'd brought a torch. She'd walked ten minutes, watching the dusk fall, was just getting ready to give up and turn back when she saw a glowing dot. She waited, watched the dot resolve into a torch in Jack's hand and felt a flood of relief.

"I know, sorry, I'm late. I couldn't leave 'til the meds brought his fever down."

He saw her look of confusion and frowned a little regretfully at what he had to say next. "Sayid. He's got a couple of pretty bad infections from stab wounds. He was on the mend for nearly a week, but then two nights ago he got worse. He went into septic shock."

"Danielle?" She asked, "I thought it'd go better for them, not worse."

"I know," Jack said. He put a hand on her shoulder, turned her around and started walking slowly back toward the hatch with her. "He's been improving all afternoon. He'll make it, I know he will."

He was staring straight down and she noticed he'd barely looked her in the eyes since they'd first met up. A thought crept into her mind.

"What else?" Kate asked sharply. Jack kept walking. "What else has happened?"

"Don't freak out," he said it fast, shook his head, eyes still down.

"This is not helping," she almost yelled it, "Breaking it gently, it's not helping."

"Boone's dead,"

He looked up and she saw both his misery at the loss and pain at what was on her face. He was watching her hope for them all fall away.

"Course correction," she said softly, her eyes widening.

"What?"

"The universe," Kate said, her mind clearly elsewhere, "has a way of course correcting," she looked angry, partly at fate but also with herself. "I can't help you. You can only help us. It's not fair. That's not fair."

She bolted, ran for the Weather Vane and Jack swore under his breath and ran after her. She was fueled by adrenaline and he was carrying a torch, trying not to start a fire in the jungle: It took him all the way back to catch her. He threw the torch to the dirt just steps from the door, got a hold of her shoulder and pulled her to him hoping to put out her urge to run.

The sun had set and it was getting dark now.

"If you leave, I don't know how we're getting out of here," he said it half under his breath. "But if you stay…. It hasn't all been a disaster. We found the people from the tail section. Boone talked with them from the radio in the plane we pushed off that cliff."

"How did he die?" she asked, her voice still shaky.

"They were headed our way and thought they were still a full day out from our camp. They heard someone moving through the brush. She shot him. Ana Lucia. It wasn't her fault."

"Shannon," Kate blurted her name out, practically shouted it, and it was his turn to look confused.

"What about Shannon? She's fine, she's watching over Sayid until I get back."

Kate's forehead dropped onto his chest and Jack realized she was laughing: Certainly not happily, even a touch hysterically- but it was better than tears and running for cover.

"Maybe I can help you," she said. "Some of you. Maybe there's hope."

She looked up and saw a small smile on his face.

"Claire had her baby," he said.

"Who delivered him?"

"I did," Jack said, sounding surprised she would ask.

"Glad to hear that," she said. "I think I should have let you know what was coming so you could be your own variables. That's what Eloise told me last night. Seems she was right as usual. "

"And who's Eloise?" Jack asked.

"Someone I hope you'll never meet. Are you ready to hear all this? You were pretty freaked out the last time just hearing the island has a leader, and believe me that's so far from all of it. You aren't even going to believe…"

"I'm ready," he interrupted her, but it felt like he was trying to be polite, to spare her some embarrassment. That's when she realized he'd been scanning her face the last minute or so, looking at her eyes, absorbed more in the way she was talking to him than with what she was saying. It was also when she noticed she hadn't stepped away from him at all. She still had one hip and the palms of her hands against him, and was holding his shirt lightly, toying with it with her fingertips as if this were L.A. and they were standing in the kitchen after he got home from work on a Friday night.

She turned abruptly, hoped he hadn't caught her expression as it dawned on her.

"C'mon," he said, reached back and offered a hand as he started down the steps of the hatch. "We have a lot to talk about."

**On Board The Valenzetti**

"Are you out of your mind?" Sawyer hissed as Annie came up the stairs from the lower deck to the middle-deck. He had the computer bag over his shoulder, a laptop full of dummy data Evan had set up for him to feed to the D.I. leaders bit by bit.

Annie had started her solo tour of the cargo ship the moment she'd tossed her bags into her clean but unbelievably tiny room. She'd found an engine room, several supply rooms, some with bunks, some full of food - and a huge set of doors that were triple padlocked. She smelled something familiar, pressed her face against the seam where they met: Benzene, ketones – a lab, she thought. They've got a laboratory on board. For what?

"Why shouldn't we check it out?" Annie said, "They told us to meet them upstairs in half an hour. They didn't say 'don't go to the lower deck, don't look around.'" We're supposed to be getting as much information for Hurley and Ben as we can. Right?"

She looked straight up at him as she asked the question, watched his face go smooth and blank. Nice poker face she thought. What else had she expected?

"What would you have said if they caught you snooping around?" Sawyer asked, not angry now, more like 'listen and learn.' "You have to have a plan. Tell 'em you went to school with someone whose dad built ships. Ask if this was built in Auckland or Nigeria? Point out that it used to be a dry goods vessel but someone obviously retrofitted it for general storage…"

"How did you know all that?"

"Because," he said, turned and started walking up the stairs to the main deck, "I do my homework. We had two days to read up on this ship and I did. You might want to not push it right away, Annie," he stopped, looked back at her. "If you haven't noticed, these guys aren't the peace, love, and flowers types. They're not messing around."

"I've noticed," she said, but didn't apologize and he turned and kept going.

Dori Goodspeed was waiting for them on deck, led them up a short set of steps to the control room at the very top. There were several people there already, some on computers and some patrolling the room with one hand on the guns in their belts. All together she'd noticed four D.I. leaders, ten support crew and six people armed with everything from high-powered rifles to handguns.

"Best get started," Dori said, sat at a table against one of the windows that made up most of the control room. He and Sawyer each logged on to their computers. Annie sat a few yards away.

At first she didn't notice it, her attention divided between them and the view of the open sea. Then it hit her: There was nothing tentative about the information exchange going on at the table. Sawyer wasn't giving them iffy coordinates and a general idea of where to head – he was helping Dori transfer programs, set up applications, sending him passwords.

He hadn't only been doing his research these last few days; he'd been stealing from Evan's laptop. In a matter of minutes they'd have everything they'd need to find The Searcher and maybe even a way into the Lamp Post's live data. And there was nothing she could do about it.

Annie stared daggers at Sawyer, mentally willing him to look up at her. She wanted to run over and shake him, ask him how the hell he could do this, put their friends' fate so completely in these peoples' hands?

Suddenly Sawyer turned his head ever so slightly away from her, his hair falling over his eyes. He'd caught her expression. He knew that she knew, she thought, and he knew there was still nothing she could do about it.

The only thing keeping her from a panic was the memory of Ben's voice on the phone the night before, saying, "He needs you a hell of a lot more than you need him."

**Island Iteration 4 of 5  
><strong>**The Weather Vane**

"That's it," Kate said, "You're the only person on the island who knows how it ends."

They were sitting in two of the swiveling office chairs that lined the wall of computers, Jack leaning forward in his contemplating what she'd said, Kate kicked back with one foot against the counter in front of the monitors.

"Or how it would have ended," he said.

They'd started out talking in the breakfast nook, but it took hours for her to tell the story and it was a lot to process. It felt to her that he was far away from her now even though their chairs were a couple of feet apart.

"Once you're out of here," she got up to break the moment and hopefully the mood, went to the sink for another glass of water, "Don't come back. Get everyone you can away and none of you comes back, please, ever."

He didn't acknowledge what she'd said but she knew he'd heard.

"I think some people will stay," he said. "Locke for sure. From what you've told me, though, no ending he'll face here would be more awful than what he had ahead of him."

Jack turned his chair around. Kate was still at the sink.

"You're not coming back, are you?" he asked.

"No," she said. "I can't. If you all don't make it I don't want to know. And if you do… I just have to go home and hope it was enough. And there's our own war going on. Hurley's going to need me."

"How bad is it there?" he asked, "What are you all up against?"

She tried to shrug it off.

"Do you really want to know when you can't do anything about it? Maybe I'm overly optimistic, but I believe we'll be okay. Only... some disappointing things are happening along the way."

The conversation wasn't going anywhere less stressful, but how could it she thought? They both still had a lot of question marks ahead of them. He looked further away than anytime since she'd gotten there today.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he said, "I wasn't sure if I should tell you this but I won't see her again once we're out of here."

"Really?"

Kate walked to the bunks, sat on the bottom one finishing her water with an indignant expression on her face on behalf of her counterpart. He turned, caught it, laughed dryly and shrugged.

"I don't know if the fact of you changed how we interacted with each other," he said, getting up and walking over, sitting next to her. "But that's just the way it's turned out. She'll probably head east with Sawyer."

"Why do you think that?"

"She moved in with him," Jack said. "They built a tent condo on the dunes west of the camp. You should see it, it's huge. You could throw a dinner party in that thing. They seem happy."

"Huh," she set her empty glass on the floor just under the bunk, stared out at the room. "I did not see that coming."

"And there's one more thing I need to say."

"What's that?"

"Stop me," Jack said and she looked up at him.

"Stop you?"

"If you've had second thoughts about this since last time you were here," he said, "stop me."

Before she could ask him what the hell he was talking about he reached around her with one arm and pulled her to him. His other hand was in her hair, tipping her face up and then his mouth was on hers and he kissed her so hard and so hungrily that for a few seconds she had no sense of which way was up and which was left.

Then he stopped just as quickly and Kate dropped back onto the bunk looking up at him.

"How am I supposed to stop you," she reached up with both hands, pulled him toward her with one, ran the fingers of her other along his jaw, touched his lips with her thumb, "If I can't even see straight."

"Sorry," he said, "I've had a month and a half to think about this" and then he reached down and kissed her once more, but this time so softly he barely grazed her mouth. She knew he'd thought about that too.

"I'm not seeing you stop me," he said, hovering over her and she grinned, her eyes narrowing as she reached between them. He felt her sliding his belt open and then shimmying out of her own jeans.

"I'd like to point out," he said, pulling back a little, taking her in with his eyes, running a hand over her hips, the back of her leg. "That's the exact opposite of stopping me. And that you were going commando."

"Jack," she said, "shut up," and she set to work on the buttons of his shirt.

"Okay," he said, but his hand was in her hair again, pulling her eyes up to his, "But only if you're sure."

"Yes," she said, and kept unbuttoning. "Let me show you how sure I am."

When she woke up he was asleep. She leaned up to look at his watch and saw she only had a few minutes left. She slid back into her clothes, trying not to wake him, thinking it'd be better if he didn't until she was gone. He did, though, and reached for her.

"No," she pushed him away, curled up between him and the wall. He looked more concerned than anything.

"I'm going soon," she said. "In a minute. I don't want feel you there and then not."

He nodded, lay on his side watching her. She felt the queasiness start, knew the room would go all swimmy next.

"Does your Lamp Post station connect to ours?" he asked, "Can you use it to get to my L.A.?"

It sounded like he'd been thinking about the question while she was sleeping.

"I don't know. I think so. There's a lot I still don't know about how this works."

"Find out," he said, pushed himself down the bunk a bit so that they were exactly face to face.

"What if I go there and…" she stopped, looked away and then back at his eyes, didn't say 'what if you're not there'.

The room went thin, stretchy, and now she could barely see him or feel the bed under her. Her brain yelled for her to reach out, but she willed her hands to stay put.

"Have some faith," she heard his voice fading away. "We'll make it. Come find me."


	31. What do you see when you close your eyes

**On Board the Valenzetti**

**At Sea**

Annie had feigned seasickness but it didn't take much acting on her part. Watching Sawyer practically hand over their friends to the DI really had left her nauseated and dizzy. She got up from her chair and headed for the stairs, heard Dori Goodspeed's voice behind her.

"Are you okay, my dear?"

She only half turned around so she wouldn't have to face them.

"Just having some trouble dealing with the waves," she said, started down the steps.

"I hate to tell you but it will get worse before it gets better," Dori said, "I'll have the crew bring you some seasick meds. And maybe it's best if you take a brisk walk around the main deck – it helps.

"Thank you," she said, trying to keep her voice even, unemotional. "I'll try it."

And that's just what she did for nearly an hour until Dori and Sawyer took a break and she saw Sawyer walking her way, the computer bag over his shoulder. They were on the main deck near the rail but around the corner from the rest of the crew, just the two of them.

Annie saw him glowering but she was angrier. She charged up to him and slammed her fist into his bicep. She got a mildly pissed-off 'ow' out of him and she reflexively started pummeling him, not nearly done venting. Sawyer stopped her fast, latched onto one of her arms and pushed it hard enough behind her back to get a gasp and an 'ow' out of her, too.

"Don't you go all drama queen on me here," he stepped in, dropped her arm. "I have my reasons for what I've done, and if you don't keep your mouth shut you're going to be sorry. They'll lock you in your room if you're lucky, and toss you overboard if you're not. Calm down, or I can't promise I can protect you."

"How do you sleep knowing you're doing this to them?" She spit the words out under her breath, "The DI didn't find out about the Weather Vane being activated or about Jacob being dead from some mysterious hatch signals," she said. "They found out from you. You created Hurley's first real crisis as leader. Do you think that the only people on this planet who cared about you are going to forgive you for that?"

She knew her words had hit harder than her hands but Sawyer's face stayed impassive, one corner of his mouth twisting down just in the slightest.

"I don't give a damn about forgiveness, I want revenge," he said, "And I'm going to get them all away from that rock and make a ton of money in the process."

"Do you really believe they'll let you have any of that?" She asked. "What makes you think they won't just kill us both when they're done with us?"

"How stupid do you think I am?" he opened the flap of the computer bag and briefly lifted the corner of a familiar looking, wired brick out of it, slid it back down. "I brought insurance."

"Great," she shook her head. "If all else fails, blow everybody up. Suicidal much?"

"Listen Moonbeam," he stepped in closer, towering over her. "Enjoy your hippie ideals and your superiority complex, but understand that you have no idea what we've been through, how we've been used like pawns. You came in a little late to this game and maybe you should stop pretending you didn't."

They both stood there in silence for a second, neither giving an inch until they heard Dori's voice behind them.

"Is there a problem?" He asked it as if he knew the answer. Sawyer turned slowly, shaking his head.

"No, I was just advising her that she should take her medicine and maybe a nap."

"Good idea," Dori stepped forward, dropped two little white pills into Annie's hands. "Antivert," he said, "for the seasickness. Why don't you rest," he said. "And why don't you stay in your room for awhile? We'll put a guard at your door for your safety."

Annie started walking wordlessly toward the stairs to head a floor down, noticed Sawyer was following. She stopped him, shaking her head.

"I'll can go by myself," she said. "I don't need you. Nobody needs you."

Both sides of his mouth moved this time, curling up in a hard little smile. He squinted, tipped his head just the slightest in a non-verbal 'touche' and watched her walk away.

"There's news about the island," Dori barely waited for Annie to disappear down the steps before he told Sawyer. "We found where it is now using the information you gave us. It's moved substantially closer to Hawaii – unless it moves again soon, we'll be there in a day and a half. Maybe less."

"Fantastic," Sawyer said, walking back to head for the upper deck. "So what's the bad news, why don't you look happier?"

"Because," Dori said, "We also found The Searcher with the info you gave us, and I'm sorry," he trailed off and Sawyer stopped walking, looked back at him, was stunned to see a sincere, almost sorrowful expression on his face for once.

"I know we said we wouldn't hurt your friends if they surrendered but they're doing just the opposite. They've spotted us and they're coming for us. They have armed reinforcements on board. We have to destroy them, Sawyer. Now."

**The Island**

**At the barracks**

**Kate's bungalow**

"Claire, can you hear me sweetie?" Kate sat next to Claire, who was lying very still on her side in in the bed in her spare room at the barracks. Kate was holding her hand, squeezing it, talking in her ear but nothing was registering.

Bernard and Rose and Hurley were with her, Bernard and Rose sitting across the room and Hurley pacing. Kate had been so surprised to see them all there when she got back from the other side. Her heart had literally jumped with joy to hear Claire had shown up at her doorstep in L.A., that she'd made the trip back to the island with Miles and Ben. Now, though, Kate's face was a little more solemn as she turned from the bed and looked at Hurley.

"Semi-comatose?" She said. "I've heard the term, but what does it mean for her?"

"She kind of dips in and out of consciousness," Hurley said. "If we bring food, she'll eat it. She's said a few words, but nothing that's made any sense. A few hours ago she got up, walked to the bathroom and took a shower," he chuckled, "Then she came right back here and crawled into bed, pulled the covers over her head and she's been like this ever since. It's all over the place."

"What did they do to you?" Kate asked quietly, looking at Claire. Rose had told her how it appeared to be the DI that had taken her, how they might have used mind control and drugs to try to 'cure' her.

"This was in the pocket of her sweat suit," Bernard picked a folded piece of paper up off of the table near his left arm, stood up and handed it to Kate. She unfolded it, shook her head as she read.

"We did the best we could for her," Kate read. "When she wakes up, you'll find that where she is, that's where she will stay," Kate folded the note again, set it down on the stand near the bed. "What does that mean?"

No one seemed to have any ideas and they stood there in silence for a while, until the 'bloop' of a text message hitting Hurley's cell phone caught their ears and they watched him read it.

"Kate," he started walking to the door, gestured. "Richard and Ben are on their way here with an update," she nodded and followed, Rose taking her spot next to Claire.

Hurley looked very pre-occupied as they walked out into the main yard, sat across from each other at the picnic table waiting for Richard and Ben.

"What's wrong?" she asked when it became clear he really didn't want to say.

"It's all happening soon," Hurley said, "The DI boat – it's close, I know it. We'll hear it from Richard in a minute but I know it." She knew he was both braced for this first challenge to his leadership, and afraid for his friends. And she knew that wasn't why he was still staring down at the picnic table.

"Hurley," she said, needling a little. "What else?"

"Okay, fine," he said, looked up at her and down again fast and it hit her where he was going to go next. "In a little while I'm going to tell you what I need you to do, where I need you to go. And you're not going to like it at all. You're going to hate it because you'll be out of the action and also because I'm going to ask you to go to the one place and time you've sworn you won't go again. But you have to Kate," he said. "You have to."

Kate just sat looking at him, shaking her head, tears springing to her tired eyes. She didn't say anything back, though, because at that minute Ben and Richard were walking up from behind the dining hall.

They were talking with each other, didn't notice the mood until they were nearly next to them and then they stopped dead.

"What's going on?" Richard asked. Hurley gave a little 'it's okay' wave, gestured for them to join them at the table. The both walked around, were just about to sit down when they heard yelling from the door of Kate's bungalow.

"She's awake," Bernard shouted it, waved for them. "Claire's awake again."

Kate was off like a shot, Hurley right behind her and Ben and Richard following behind. She practically flew into the spare room, saw Claire standing near the full-length mirror next to the dresser, brushing her hair. Claire turned when she heard the commotion, smiled like she'd just seen Kate yesterday.

"Claire, you're up," Kate said, feeling out how else to approach this. "How are you?"

"I'm good," she said, shrugging a little, smiling. Something was off: She didn't seem to notice the number of people standing in her room observing her a little breathlessly, and she didn't notice Kate was visibly pregnant. Still, though, her eyes were bright and her voice had a lot of its old lilt back.

"I'm a little tired, but…" Claire stopped brushing her hair, looked at Kate specifically. "Where's Aaron?"

They were all shocked, but she had been through too much to be thrown so easily.

"We thought you needed some rest," Kate said, let her voice trail off to see how Claire would respond.

"Oh, thanks," Claire went back to brushing her hair, pulling at a knotted strand with the brush, wrinkling her nose as she tugged at it. "I really did. Did Charlie take him for a walk?"

Rose gasped. That and the sound of Claire's brush moving through her hair were the only sounds for the next few seconds.

"Yes," Kate said, "They'll be back soon, I'm sure."

"I hope so," Claire said, "Aaron gets so cranky if he's late for a feeding."

She kept brushing and no one moved, but Hurley and Kate's eyes connected across the room.

**On board the Valenzetti**

**Annie's room**

Annie was surprised they left her phone with her, but she realized why pretty quickly: It got no connectivity in her tiny metal cage, she couldn't even try to get by the wifi password. It was a brick. She tossed it on the table near her mattress, sat staring at the walls for a few minutes racking her brain for a way out.

She stretched out, decided to close her eyes and think deeply about it – that was a strategy she's used many times in her life and it often helped. It was what sent her to the South Pacific after college, what led her, eventually to Penny and Desmond at a marina in the middle of nowhere, and then to the island.

To her shock she heard her door opening, a woman's voice bickering mildly with the guard at her door telling him to go, to hurry, and then Elian Lewis walked in, slammed it shut and ran straight for the tiny bathroom at the back of her room. Annie hadn't seen her since the meeting in the diner, remembered how Elian had asked her if she was good with her research on the island being used for profit someday.

The bathroom was nothing more than a toilet and a sink behind half a wall. Annie stood up as Elian jumped up on the sink without a word or even a look at her, pulled a screwdriver out of her pocket and undid the plate in the ceiling where the pipes came through. She reached up, started wailing on the pipe again and again, just barely jumped out of the way to the floor as water started gushing out.

"I told him a pipe burst above your room," she said. "And now it has. I probably only have about four minutes, please, can you tell me what these are all about?"

Elian handed her a piece of paper and Annie saw it was a print out of a series of photographs, close up pictures of labels on dozens of barrels, jars, bins.

"These are all in the lab downstairs. You're a doctor, do you know what any of them they're about, what they're used for?"

"Nothing good," Annie said, her face falling slowly with every label she read and then her hand went to her mouth. "Oh no,"

"What?" Elian said, looking toward the door. "Hurry…'

"Some of these… they could be used to make biological weapons."

"There are a lot of barrels that aren't labeled. We can't even know what's in them. What if it gets worse?" Elian started turning in circles, the room was too small for pacing. "I didn't get in for this," Annie could see her hands were shaking a little. "I wanted to make cures, make money on them…"

"Their way will probably make them a lot more," Annie said, shrugged sadly, sat down again. She saw Elian's eyes dart around the room and Elian picked up her cell phone from the table.

"Let me take this," She said. "I can connect upstairs, text your friends. I'll keep in touch with them. I'll do what I can."

Annie nodded, and Elian started back out the door.

"I have to be out there when he gets back," she said, "I can't have him thinking we've been talking." Annie nodded.

"Come tell me what's happening," she said, "If you can."

"I'll try," she said, started to shut the door, then paused. "I do know they're going after The Searcher now," she saw Annie's face fall. "I'm sorry…"

"No," Annie waved her on. "Go ahead. It's hard, but not as hard as not knowing."

"I'm not high up the security chain," Elian said. "But I do know that whatever they have planned for your friends on the island, whatever their method is to try to knock them off it – it's already there. It's all in place."

She closed the door, and Annie sat on the edge of her mattress, her hands folded in front of her and she shut her eyes.

She tried to clear her mind again, but all she could see behind her eyelids was the jungle, the barracks, her friends, the day she'd saved Bernard from his gunshot wounds, the way Hurley always thanked her for helping them. Ben.

She felt her eyes burning, reached up to press them, to try to block it all out, but she couldn't. She wanted to go home.


	32. Taking Leave, Taking a Deep Breath

**The Island**

**The Barracks Cafeteria**

"Kate I know you're eating for two," Hurley watched her shoveling down scrambled eggs, pulling apart a piece of toast that clearly never stood a chance. "But you do realize the other one's just a really tiny baby?"

She gave him an "oh, that's nice" grin, wrinkled her nose, didn't slow down.

"We have got to get Annie back here," Hurley whispered to Richard on his right, as if Kate couldn't hear him. "Like now."

"She'll be home," Richard said, "Soon."

Ben and the three of them were at a table, sharing food and updates. It was lunch hour and the small room was full of the new recruits, the conversation level noisy enough that they could talk with some degree of privacy. Ben said Miles had teams canvasing nearly every corner of the island but so far all was quiet. Richard explained that the Orchid and the Flame were both fortified with supplies and material for barricades if they needed to hunker down. A team of six was guarding each of the posts.

"I talked with Frank in Guam, too," Richard said. "I had him partition off the old Dharma warehouse, make some holding cells of a sort."

"Why?" Hurley looked like he suspected the answer and didn't like it.

"If we win, Hurley, we'll need somewhere to keep them until…" Richard hesitated, looked at Ben. "Well, until we decide what to do with them."

"You mean like interrogate them? Kill them?" They could hear Hurley's stress building and Kate reached out a hand to squeeze his arm. "No way. No one gets killed and no torture."

"We don't know what's coming," Ben said after a short silence. "But what you say goes. Still, it's a great idea Richard: Safer to keep them somewhere we control but off of the island entirely. Good thinking."

"Thank you, Ben," Richard didn't look at him as he said it, but you could hear he appreciated it. Hurley let it go, noticing that they were working better together than ever: Any old grudges and differences of opinion they'd had over the decades seemed to be dissolving.

"I should head back to the Flame," Ben got up. "I'll check in with Penny and Eloise again. Hurley, you'll meet me there?"

"Right after I see them off," he looked at Kate, who avoided his eyes and picked at her now almost empty plate with her fork.

"Could you give us a second?" Hurley asked Richard, who got up to go too.

"See you soon," Richard waved to Kate. "We'll be back in training in no time. Take care of Walt."

"See you, Richard."

She waited until they were a few steps away to say it.

"I should stay here and help you."

"You will be helping me. You'll be protecting Walt and his menagerie," Hurley smiled, tried to keep it light. "You and my dad will be making sure my mom is okay, and watching Rose, so she doesn't worrying herself sick over Bernard," he paused and when she still wouldn't look him in the eye he dipped his own head down, peering up at her. "And I'm going to need you around for a really long time when this is over, so, you know, I need you to protect yourself too."

"I've proven I can handle myself in a tough spot, I know how to make the fast decisions," she rattled her case off to him, not giving in.

"And we don't know…" Hurley emphasized the 'we' "What they have planned. What if they gas the place the way the DI was gassed by the Others? That'd be kind of like a revenge move, right? Even the hatches here might not be safe if they do that. I feel really strongly about this, Kate: You have to stay on the island right now, but for the next couple of days it has to be that island you've been visiting. Richard will come get you all the second it's over."

"And how long do we sit there and wait if Richard doesn't show up?"

Hurley smiled, relieved. He'd won.

"Three days. If you haven't heard from us by then," she looked up, saw a flicker of concern in his eyes for a second and then he grinned again. "You may need to come take the place back."

**The Searcher**

**At Sea**

Penny was on her way up to the control room with coffee for her and Desmond when she saw one of their guests walking the deck, head down against a strong breeze, hands in his pockets.

"Max," she reached out with one of the cups. "Coffee? I didn't know you were up so early."

It was barely dawn but Max looked as if he'd been up and watching the waves for hours, which he had.

'No, thank you," he said, nodded upstairs. "Is there anything I can do to help? I get the sense our quiet moments are going to be over soon."

Penny smiled, shrugged.

"They might, but we don't know for sure. We haven't spotted them yet. Hopefully they haven't spotted us." She saw their other guest coming up the steps behind Max from the lower deck. He gave them both a wave and started his own loop around the boat and Penny pointed her chin toward him.

"There is one thing you can do for me," she said. "Can you tell me anything about him?"

"Armin?" Max sounded surprised. "I'm sorry, I thought you knew our histories. I could have filled you in a lot sooner. Have you not heard of Armin Scharff?"

"No," Penny said, "Sorry, never have. Ben only told us we were picking up a cosmologist and a shrink… and well, you're the time and space guy so…"

Max clearly got a kick out of her innocence.

"He is that, but he, well he specializes. His father was known as the best interrogator of the mid-20th century," Max said, watching Armin turn the corner of the ship on his walk. "He's better."

"He's a torturer?" Penny looked horrified to think their polite, nearly silent guest could be so different from her conception of him.

"No," Max was quick to clarify. "He's that good. He'll get whatever he wants to know out of you without ever laying a hand on you. The psychological damage though, can be far from pretty. He's thorough, and he works fast."

Penny was looking up at Max, her eyes a little sad, a bit apprehensive.

"Strange times we live in," she said, wondering what Hurley, or more likely Ben and Richard, wanted with a skill set like that on the island.

"They're all strange times," the cosmologist said with a grin. "We only notice it more about ours because we're stuck in them. At least sometimes we are," he said with an anticipatory glint in his eyes.

"You can't wait to get back to the island, can you?" Penny was smiling again, heading up the steps and Max didn't bother to deny it.

"The sooner the better," he said, started back on is march around the ship. "Every second counts."

The bridge was quiet when Penny walked in, handed Desmond his coffee and curled up on the padded bench along the windows next to him. Mathias and Henrick were manning the controls, Mathias surfing the web and watching the computer systems that connected to the tracking station where the two of them had spent so many cold winters.

Penny was starting to feel like maybe it'd be another peaceful day after all when she saw Mathias jump, an involuntary sound escaping his throat.

"We're being hacked," he said, started flicking off computers, waved to Henrick. "Print it out, the directions to the island, and then shut everything down," he said, looked back at Desmond and Penny. "Turn off your phones, too," he said, but Des already was dialing.

"Calling Ben first," he said. "Then I will. I'll let him know what's happening and that we'll be flying in blind."

Penny was staring straight into his eyes with a look of apology and he shook his head at her, telling her silently to stop it.

"Well," Desmond took a deep breath, then, phone to his ear as he waited for Ben to answer. "Here we go."

**The Island**

**On the Way to the Weather Vane**

"It's gonna be like we're camping," Walt was very excited as they trekked to the Weather Vane. He looked at Kate. "Can we have a fire and marshmallows?"

"Dude, we do that here all the time," Hurley pointed out.

The three of them were at the back of their little group. David Reyes was leading the way, Carmen and Rose chatting together a dozen yards behind him. Joop and Vincent were all over the place, clearly enjoying the hike most of all.

"Yeah," Walt said, "But this will be different. It'll be so quiet there."

Hurley looked at Kate and they both realized what he was saying: He wasn't used to all the new recruits, all these new people on his island.

"I know what you mean," Hurley said, "I kind of liked it when it was just us, too. But we need them."

"Yeah," Walt said, "I guess," and he took off running, laughing, toward Joop, who was chasing Vincent.

"Why?" Kate took the opportunity while she had him alone. "Why are you so set on us going to January, '05? Why can't I go back closer to where I was before, check them one more time before they try to leave their island?"

"Too many variables are going with you," Hurley had been expecting the question and he was ready with an answer. "It was one thing for you to go there alone, but put all these other people in the mix while they're still there and who knows what the heck could happen. Plus," he stopped, waved for her to stop, too. "You say you don't want to know if they made out safely, but I want you to find out. We need to know for our research on the Weather Vane and you need to know for your own sake."

"Hurley," she was instantly unhappy and he shook his head.

"Are you seriously going to tell me it's not eating at you? The Kate I know doesn't live in fear of finding out what happened next."

She looked both tired and a little pissed off as she answered.

"The Kate you know lost Jack, failed Claire, almost died making it back here, found out she's a fugitive again and realized Sawyer's been lying to us since the plane landed in Nauru," she stopped, "All in the last five months. I don't know how much more I can take."

"A lot more," he said, put an arm around her, walking them slowly forward. "You can take a lot more because you're going to have to. You miss him, don't you?"

Kate kept going but for a second she wondered if he was trying to make her hurt so much that whatever was coming next couldn't.

"I miss them both," she said, her voice catching. "But when I'm with him then I'm with them both."

They went on in silence for a minute.

"You could have come with me," Kate said, "To see her. I'm surprised you haven't wanted to."

Hurley shrugged.

"Everyone's different about it," he said. "It's enough for me that you got 'other me' and 'other her' off the island safely. That's enough."

"If I actually did," Kate said, downbeat one more time.

"You did," Hurley said, "I'm sure for you, even if you're not."

They were at the Weather Vane, and then it was a flurry of busy-ness that was all business. Hurley waited off to one side of the hatch while Walt helped his friends through one after the other. He was standing there still as Kate took her place on the landing pad, the last to leave.

"Goodbye Hurley," she said to him "We'll be thinking of you every second. See you soon."

"Absolutely," Hurley nodded, "See you again, Kate - in this life."

Hurley closed his eyes, not particularly wanting to watch her disappear and when he opened them again he was alone. He sat for a minute, drinking in the silence, and then he headed for the hatch door to make the walk back to the Flame.


	33. Is there anything worse than uncertainty

**The Island**

**The Flame Station**

"Hello, Eloise," Ben had her on speaker and was firing up several programs on two computers as she picked up. "I just got your message to call. What's going on?"

"Hopefully nothing," Eloise's voice had an unconfident air to it, not like her. Ben's fingers paused and he stared at the phone, pushing his glasses up his nose a bit. "But while filling Evan in on various matters, we stumbled on something."

"And what's that?" Ben drew out the four words, unable to hide that he was distracted. The lack of anything ominous in her first sentence had sent his attention back to the data as he scanned reports from the various patrols.

"When you sent Frank back to Guam and you told him to keep in touch with me – I thought one of his first emails said you'd decided to cut the number of new recruits by ten. I wrote back and told him that was fine, I imagined you all had your reasons. But I misread it: He actually wrote that the last ten people who agreed to sign on… they never showed up for processing. Like they simply knew not to bother."

Ben's fingers stopped dead on the keyboard in front of him and he felt a chill of fear down his back and a hot little shot of anger in his stomach at the same time.

"Eloise," Ben said, "How many recruits came to the island? Where did you get them?"

"Thirty total," Eloise said, "Fourteen are full members of our group or children of Others, they're well known to us. The other sixteen I found via a firm we've used for decades to hire security people, engineers. They're called Afforest & Nights. "

Ben had the name Googled before she finished the sentence.

"Afforest & Nights was bought, six months ago," his voice sounded like he was in a dream he'd really like to wake up from. "Bought by a company out of Ann Arbor, owned by the Goodspeed family."

Eloise gave a gasp. Ben would've have appreciated the horror in it if he had time to.

"Put Evan on the phone," he said, barely waited for a 'hello'. "Evan, I need names and faces of every recruit signed up through 'Afforest & Nights' as fast as you can get them from Frank. Richard will have taken their photos for their ID badges – all of it is on their computers in Guam. It should be here," he was keying frantically, looking, but no. "It's not. Get it to me… now."

"On it," he heard Evan say. Ben set the phone down, his eyes glued out the window at the three recruits guarding him here at the Flame. They were pacing along the side of the building, chatting, their rifles pointed at the ground. The muffled edges of their conversation and the occasional laugh were just audible through the glass. Ben silently hoped against hoped that when the names and faces came back, they'd be among the recruits who really had his back.

And then he wondered when the sixteen, the DI recruits, would get it: The signal to take Hurley's team out. All those thoughts were doing a dance in his brain when the phone rang again. He looked at the caller ID and he hit speaker.

"Desmond?"

"Someone's hacking into our systems," Desmond's voice was controlled, but Ben could hear a hubbub building in the background. "We're getting what we need off of our computers to find our way back, and then we're shutting them down. We'll be coming in blind from here."

"Do that if you have to," Ben wasn't going to waste his time with a lot of words. "But get online occasionally if you dare. Any updates are better than none."

"Aye," he heard Desmond say, and then he hung up too.

"Hurley," Ben picked up the two-way by his right hand, "How far out are you from the Flame?"

"Ten minutes," he heard Hurley's voice, upbeat. "Tops."

Ben looked out the window again, decided to keep it simple in case anyone was listening in. "Great. Thanks. See you then."

**Island Iteration 4 of 5**

**Via the Weather Vane**

"We won't go hungry," Rose was standing with one arm on the open refrigerator door, organizing the items inside. "They stocked this place as if we'll be staying a couple of weeks. How about we make this taco night?"

"Yes!" Walt flew over to her from where he'd been sitting with Joop, watching videos on a laptop. Vincent was curled up with them. The combination of an open refrigerator and Walt leaving his side was enough to make Vincent stretch and follow. "That sounds great."

"How about you shred the lettuce and the cheese," Rose handed him both, pointed to the counter. "I'll get the rest started."

"Let me help, Mijo," Carmen left Kate and David to finish setting up the Aero beds without her, and went to Walt, who was washing his hands. She searched in the kitchen island for bowls and a grater. "We're cooking for five here. Many hands will make light work."

"Six," Walt said, pulling the plastic wrapper off of the cheese. He dug off a little piece and tossed it to Vincent. "We should cook for six, Claire could get here anytime. Why didn't she come with us anyway?"

"Walt," Rose's voice was a warning. She hadn't seemed to turn her head but she saw it. "The last thing we need is a dog with an upset stomach the next few days. He's got his food bowl, let him eat that, okay? And Claire is still not feeling well enough to walk as far as we did. Hurley's having the recruits drive her to the station in a Dharma van once we've had some time to set up. All the fussing might upset her, too."

"We're not going to have much room to walk once we're done," David Reyes was crouched down over the next to the last of the air mattresses, disconnecting the electric air pump. "We'll be a tight knit little community."

They all knew they were keeping the conversation light, and keeping it going, to push away thoughts of Hurley and the rest. Kate's mind was too busy to participate; it was being pulled in two directions. She walked over to where the blankets were stacked, started picking them up to drop one on each mattress. She stopped with a start when she got to the bunk beds and saw a piece of paper lying on the pillow of the bottom one. It was folded into a small square with her name written across it in Jack's scrawl. She picked it up, tucked it into her pocket.

"Do you mind if I run upstairs for a second?" She asked David. "I think I just need a little air."

"No problem," he nodded, face straight, but she knew he'd seen her pick up the note.

"We should make sure she doesn't go far," Rose waited until Kate was around the corner and up the stairs to say it, "don't you think?"

"Give her a minute," David said, went on with the last of the setting up. "It's dark out, no matter how much she might want to go to the beach she'll stay here. Plus she knows Claire will need her. I'll go check on her in a few."

Kate stood just outside the side door of the hatch, leaning against it to keep it open and to use the light coming up to her. She opened the note, angled it, just able to make out the words.

Dec. 30, '04 was at the top.

"Our first attempt on the Looking Glass post failed," she read. "The second succeeded. Penny's boat is on the way to us as of two days ago. We should see them by tomorrow night."

One of Kate's hands was holding the note, the other had unconsciously gone to her heart. She wished he'd written more about the first attempt, or nothing at all.

"Several people are staying: Locke, Cindy, Steve, Scott, Michael and Walt, a few more. Walt didn't want to leave, and Michael agreed, for now at least."

There was a thin, jagged line of pen trailing down below that, like he'd struggled for what to write next, and then, lower on the page…

"If you came back and got this tell yourself it worked and go home. That might be smarter than coming to look for me, and maybe finding out it went to hell."

There was another space, and then three more lines.

"Sayid says hello, and shukran," one of them read. The next two had Jack's street address in L.A., and his cell phone number with "(just in case)" next to it.

Kate folded the note up, laughing and crying at the same time, tucked it back in her pocket and wiped her eyes, rested the palm of her hand against her mouth to keep from crying harder. She heard feet on the stairs behind her, turned to see David a few yards away.

"Is there anything worse than uncertainty?" He asked, stepped out a few yards from the hatch door and looked up at the perfectly black sky full of stars. "Those three and a half months after the crash when we thought we'd lost Hurley forever," he shook his head, looked back at her. "It was the worst. I wish we'd known he was alive, just somewhere we couldn't get to him – and that he had friends like you all with him. It would have helped."

"Are you telling me you'd rather I stay?" Kate asked. "When this is over?"

David shrugged.

"I can't lie, I'd rather my son had more of his friends around him than fewer. But I guess I'm saying you have to put your uncertainties to rest, too, Kate. You shouldn't live that way forever, not if you don't have to. It's too awful. I know you're hesitating to tell Hurley what you're thinking, but I'm guessing he already knows- and he'll agree."

Kate nodded, wiping her eyes once more, looking down.

Then they both heard the noisy clatter of Walt's feet half tripping over each other on the way to them, heard him yell up the stairs.

"Claire's here," he shouted. "And Rose wants help with dinner."

David started down, squeezed her hand on the way by. "Don't go to the beach alone tomorrow. I'll go with you, or Walt can go along. Okay?"

"Okay," Kate followed him in, got mentally prepared to turn her focus to Claire.

**On Board The Searcher**

Penny and Desmond, their crew and their guests were all busy making barricades along the middle deck of the boat. They pulled down tables, removed doors from their hinges and leaned them on the rail. They made enough shelters to allow everyone to sit on the deck and watch the water from all sides, and still have room to reach around and shoot if needed. Everyone was armed but Charlie, who was asleep in his room.

"Can I share some advice?" Armin asked Penny as they worked, and she was so shocked to actually hear his voice she jumped a little.

"Of course," she said.

"You must remember all that matters to the people on the other boat is the information on this ship," he said, "You and your husband, you're kind people. I'm concerned if they make it here, you may see familiar faces and feel bad for them," he paused. "You have to shut that off, don't let it in for a second or you risk not making it home. Can you do that?"

"Yes," Penny nodded, started to say something more when a strobe light hit their eyes, a bright white light flicking across the surface of the water right along the rail where they were all standing.

Everyone dropped down where they'd been standing, and Penny looked to her right, saw Desmond fifty feet away staring back at her, nodding.

"They're here," Armin said, checked the rifle on his shoulder. "If you see anything moving our way, start shooting- and don't stop until it stops."


	34. Cruel to be kind

**The Island**

Hurley was half way back to the Flame when he heard a familiar click-snick sound of rifles being cocked. He stopped, turned slowly and saw three of his recruits walking toward him.

"Hi, Rayburn," he nodded to the one he recognized best, "And," he paused, "Carlisle and, no wait, don't tell me," he pointed to the third. "Harper."

Hurley froze then, finger still in mid-air pointing.

"Is there a reason you're pointing your guns this way?" He asked, ten thoughts flying through his head. "You do know you work for me?" And then nine of the thoughts left. They weren't necessary anymore. "Ah, crap, you don't work for me."

Rayburn shook his head. Hurley took some consolation from the fact they looked sorry to have to bust him, there was some hope in that.

"I'll have to ask you to give me your two-way and cell phone, and come with us to the Arrow," Rayburn said, took the radio from Hurley as Harper took the phone. They went a little further, made the sharp right on the path toward the Arrow.

"Why there?" Hurley asked as they walked.

"That's where we'll be holding your people until they get here," Carlisle started to say more, was cut off.

"Sorry," Rayburn said, "You know as much as you need to know."

Hurley silently disagreed with him, working on Plan B.

"Any chance you guys might defect?" He asked, the usual happy lilt and the best of intentions in his voice. He saw Carlisle looking at Harper, looking at Rayburn.

"If you flip now, you never have to be on the losing side for even a second. Plus, it'll be a lot safer for you," Hurley stopped, looked back at them. "I'm guessing someone told you not to kill me or I'd just be dead. But my people, well, a few of them have this fierce, protective streak. I don't know what they might do. Actually, that's not true," he said and started walking again "I do know what they'll do. It probably won't go well for you."

The trio behind him didn't start walking for several more seconds.

"Keep moving," Rayburn finally pointed his gun toward the path, and the other two recruits got the message. They all pushed forward to catch up with Hurley.

"You know what's funny?" Hurley asked, sensing he'd lost this battle for now. "Use my phone and google your last names and the words 'red shirt'." He shook his head. "Seriously, think about it guys. There's still time to be on the side that's going to win."

**Island 4 of 5**

**Via the Weather Vane**

Kate made it ten steps out of the Weather Vane, then heard Rose's voice.

"I thought you agreed not to go to the beach alone?" Rose called from the doorway. Kate turned around and gave a 'yeah, I'm sorry' eye roll, adjusted her backpack and the rifle on her shoulder.

"It's safer this way," she said. "I'll be back in a couple of hours, before most of the rest of them are even awake for the day and then we'll all stay put. I promise."

"Safer for us," Rose wasn't quite convinced. "But you have no idea who you might run into out there. What do we do if you never come back?"

"Not going to happen," Kate smiled, started out again.

She went off the main path after a few dozen yards, and took a route to the beach camp that she knew was shorter but covered in trees and vines. Every so often she stopped, and found even the birds and the bugs were quiet: She was wrapped in a warm, sunny, windless, utterly dead silence. She shivered, pressed on, looking forward to the sound of waves she knew would be coming, just to break the quiet.

Then she was there, the ocean visible out in the distance. Between her and the water sat heartbreakingly familiar things she realized she'd probably never see again. First, there were the tents - Hurley's next to the Kwons', in front of Jack's, many others of them in the familiar semi-circle. Behind that stretched the long table with makeshift shelves, cans and boxes and bowls and plates filling them. Closer to the water she could see the tarp for catching rainwater, and the leftover circles of charred wood where their campfires had burned. It was all perfectly intact, but there was no mistaking this was a ghost town she was walking through. She let her fingers run along the tarps as she went, and fought off a weird feeling of nostalgia for a place she'd technically never lived.

She stopped when she got to the front, turned around to face it all. And she forced her eyes to look to the right – toward the graveyard. Three crosses. The nostalgia was replaced by a thin, creeping fear. Who had they buried next to Boone?

She started to walk that way and found the closer she got, the harder it was to breathe. She closed her eyes and could hear her heart thumping in her own ears, followed by the memory of Hurley saying, "The Kate I know doesn't live in fear of finding out what happens next." She braced herself, opened her eyes, took another step forward and then….

"Hello, Kate,"

The soft, low voice out of nowhere shocked her so deeply that she almost tripped, gave off something between a gasp and a shriek. In half of a second she caught herself, flipped the rifle off of her shoulder, spun around toward where it had come from and pointed the gun.

"John?"

He was standing twenty feet away, a rifle over his own shoulder pointing straight up. He hadn't made a move for it at all, and the hard line of his mouth broke into a smile as she dropped hers, pointing it at the sand.

"John Locke?" she said then, and though the smile stayed he tilted his head, eyes squinting ever so slightly.

"Of course it's me," he said. "Who else would it be?"

Kate dropped her rifle, put her head in one hand and allowed herself a moment of hysterical laughter, her fingers trembling. She looked up and saw John was motioning toward the 'kitchen'.

"Want something to eat?" he asked, "I'm starving."

"Sure," Kate picked up the gun, remembered she hadn't eaten anything since dinner last night. She pulled a bottle of water out of her pack and went to meet him, sitting on a log. He handed her a box of dry cereal and a guava, brought over a bowl and started peeling some papaya, slicing it as he went.

"Jack told me about you," he said, "before they left. I know where you're from and what you lost, and why you felt the need to help us."

He stopped there and she was wondering if that was the end of that thought.

"That's why you're not a hostage right now," Locke said, and the thin little thread of fear she'd felt earlier shot back up her spine.

"What?" She managed a grin, picking at the cereal "Hostage? Because…" and it hit her. "These Others don't know how to use their Weather Vane hatch, do they?"

"Bingo," John said, rinsed his knife with some of the water in his bottle, slugged some of the water back himself and then wiped the knife on his pants and tucked it in his pocket.

"Those of us who decided to stay, we're not 'with' the Others, we're not with anyone. I hope we will be someday. For now, they're letting us live here in peace as long as we don't go on any crazy construction projects like their last tenants. They respect that we want to learn about this place. I think they might let us join their religious order eventually."

He held out the bowl of papaya and she took a piece.

"So you really could get a lot of leverage with them just by handing me over," she said, chewed on the fruit. "They could force my friends to help them figure it out, or maybe never see me again. Why wouldn't you take advantage of that opportunity?"

"Because I owe you my life," Locke said emphatically, holding his hand out for the cereal box. "Jack told me how I could have ended up dead in a seedy hotel room, as a pawn to get you all back. It would have been safer, easier for you not to get involved here. You made a big difference in a lot of lives."

"Well if you didn't come here to kidnap me, what did you come here, for John?" She asked, not unappreciative, just doing the math. "It wasn't to have a picnic with me."

He laughed his familiar short, sharp laugh and nodded, like 'good one'.

"No, Kate, it wasn't for the fine dining or to see another you – as unique an opportunity as this is. I came to tell you what I know about what happened to them, about their escape attempt. I figure sharing that and not taking you hostage, well it almost makes us even. I'll still owe you."

"Attempt?" Her smile was gone.

"You live in a world where Richard and Ben are your colleagues," John said, "I live in one where they were dead set on not letting them get away, maybe telling other people about the island," he stopped, set the bowl down between their feet. "They caught up with the Searcher when it was a day out. More than 25 people left here on it. I'm told fifteen made it to lifeboats after it sunk. At least one of the lifeboats sunk after that…"

Kate's eyes were darting from him to the jungle to the table in front of them and back. If she had the strength in her to focus for a second she'd have seen the sad smile on his face, John's pain at having to tell her all this.

"They could be lying to you," Kate said, her mind going to the first natural, human refuge. "Maybe they just told you that…"

"It was Richard," John said quietly, reached an arm around her shoulder. "These people have their glaring faults, but our Richard is an honest man. I'm guessing yours is too. If your Richard told you what had happened, would you believe him?"

Kate looked up at him, didn't say another word but he could read her face.

"He couldn't tell me a lot about who was on the lifeboats. It was nighttime when they attacked and there was a lot of chaos. He described people I'm pretty sure are James and Libby, Bernard, Rose, Hurley, the Kwons, your counterpart…" John stopped, held up a hand seeing her impatience. "There were also two men in the water, pulling people to the lifeboats. He was sure they were Jack and Desmond. And that's it." John said. "That's what I know. What happened to them from there, who got away and who didn't…."

Kate had been looking down at the ground again, but now she looked up with fresh horror in her eyes.

"How did Richard know all this?"

It was a simple question, but John wasn't answering.

"Locke, how the hell did Richard know all of this detail?"

"Because Ben sent him to run the mission," John said. "Richard sunk the Searcher."

Kate was on her feet, pacing, so far beyond furious it needed a new location name. For a second Locke was concerned for her until he saw her forcing herself to shake it off, to control her emotions.

"Don't blame this on your Richard," John said, "You know it's not his fault."

Kate nodded, gasping still, her arms folded. She turned to look at the graveyard.

"Who never made it off?" she asked and John saw where she was looking.

"Eko and Ana Lucia. Ana was on the first trip to the Looking Glass. One of the Others on the station shot her seconds after they surfaced. They tried to get her back here in time but she died on the way home. Eko, we found him in the jungle beaten to a pulp."

John looked at Kate and he knew she didn't have to ask by what. And as much as he wanted to know a whole lot more himself, he didn't put it on her to tell him.

Kate picked up her pack, settled it on her shoulders. John gathered his own things.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I know this is hard, but if they don't make it home there may be no one else for you to hear it from," John said. "And let's face it: There's not much that's worse than not knowing."

He saw her nod.

"Hurley's dad said the same thing to me just last night." She stepped over to him, and much to his shock, wrapped her arms around his neck in a big, hard hug.

"Thank you," she said, stepped back. "And I'm so sorry I said you were obsessed with the island because you'd never known love."

"You didn't say that to me," Locke said. "You said it to your John. But… damn."

"There was a lot I didn't understand three years ago," Kate said. "I guess I wish I could apologize to him. This is as close as I'll get."

"Maybe not," Locke gestured in the general direction of everything around them. "Look where we are."

He watched as she started north to the hatch, and then he headed east.

"Good luck to you, Locke," she said. "I hope you have a good life here."

"Good luck to you Kate," John said, "I hope you find what you're looking for."


	35. Half a world away

**The Island**

**Inside The Flame**

Ben closed his eyes and sighed in relief at the only good news he'd get for the day: The three recruits guarding him were loyal Others, not any of the sixteen DI spies wandering the island. He flipped through the files Frank had sent from the registration point in Guam one more time to confirm, then called them inside.

He sent them out with copies, instructions to bring as many of the infiltrators as they could catch to the Weather Vane and wait there for Richard.

Richard, as in Richard who wasn't answering his cell phone. Ben called him twice, tried the Orchid directly, phoned the cell again, pacing the whole time. And as he paced, it hit him: Hurley had never shown up. He had been ten minutes out nearly an hour ago.

"Sorry," He finally heard Richard's voice. "The gates leading in were overgrown with weeds and vines, no one's been down here for awhile. We were busy breaking in…"

Ben cut him off.

"You need to leave Bernard there to keep in touch with us. You and Miles get to the Weather Vane immediately."

"Why?" Richard picked up on his tone, kept it short.

"It's starting. I just confirmed that half the new recruits Eloise sent you were hired through a security company we've used for decades—one the DI quietly bought out last summer. Look at your email, I'm sending you names and faces right now. And I'm pretty sure they've taken Hurley."

He heard Richard swear under his breath as it sunk in.

"We've got to convince him to carry a gun," Richard said.

"Good luck with that," Ben said with a grim laugh.

"Wait," Richard started a new thought, paused. "I'm looking at this- some of these guys are security, but some are engineers. Why would they spend money and energy infiltrating the team wiring us for power and utilities?"

This time it was Richard who heard Ben reacting, just the smallest exhalation.

"They've been crawling through the barracks, the hatches for weeks," Ben said. "They're not just wiring for power," he scanned the walls and ceiling then dropped down, started looking and feeling along the walls and under the desks.

"There it is," Ben felt them before he saw them, ducked his head to watch his fingers trace along the set of long, thin wires all the way to the device they were attached to under the computer bank.

"They've been wiring explosives, too." 

"What? Why would they bomb resources they could use?"

"Oh, I don't know. To create chaos," Ben said, grabbing his pack. "Cut off our communications. Divide and conquer. Richard, we've got to catch them all today or this will get messy very fast." Ben took a gun from his bag, tucked it in his belt and reached over to hang up the landline. "I'll meet you at the Weather Vane."

**Island Iteration 4 of 5**

**Via the Weather Vane**

Kate barely felt her twenty-minute walk back to the hatch to rejoin her friends. One second she'd been parting ways with John at the beach, the next her eyes focused again and she saw Claire and Walt outside the hatch, playing with Joop and Vincent.

They were throwing a Frisbee which Vincent would catch and bring, usually, to Joop. Sometimes Joop would try to throw it, other times he'd just take off with it, running in figure eights and making Vincent chase him. Kate couldn't tell who was having more fun, the two of them or Claire and Walt. Her breath caught for a second at Claire's trilling laugh. She hadn't heard it in years.

"Talk about me being too daring," Kate skirted the game of tag, walked straight over to Rose and Carmen who were in lawn chairs next to the hatch doorway. "What are you all doing out here? There are Others on this island, you know, and they're not our friends at the moment."

"They'll go crazy without some outdoor time," Rose nodded toward the playgroup. "And David's walking a circle around us, keeping watch."

"Did you get any good news, dear?" Carmen asked, and Kate gave a shrug and a smile that curved down as much as up. It said more than she even felt like putting into words at the moment.

"Remember," Carmen said, giving Kate's wrist a quick squeeze. "Things are never as bad as they seem or as good as they seem."

Kate nodded, broadened her smile for Carmen's sake and looked back at Claire and Walt.

"She's been awake for hours," Rose said. "No more attacks of the sleepies. She's almost like herself, except that she's living in this fifteen minutes. Every time she asks about Charlie and Aaron we just tell her they're on the way and it does the trick. What if that never gets better?"

"There are options," Kate said simply, and Rose and Carmen exchanged a questioning glance. Only Hurley, Richard and Kate knew all the details about the hatch and the other worlds they'd been studying. "It'll have to wait until we go home, and we can all talk, do what's right for her. By then we'll know how much more she's going to recover of her memory."

"The note in her pocket did say that where she is, that's where she'll stay," Rose said. "And Kate, she is so very stuck in three years ago."

"I hate to break up recess," Kate said, more than one thing clearly on her mind. "But we should get inside. It's not safe here. I hope we see Richard soon. I hope this is almost over." Her hand went to her stomach unconsciously, and Carmen and Rose exchanged a glance of concern again.

"It's time to go home," Kate said.

**The Island**

**En Route to the Weather Vane**

The path Ben was taking from the Flame station was narrow, surrounded by trees and tall grass. The foliage is what saved him when he heard four of the DI spies coming his way. It gave him time and a place to hide and listen in on their conversation as they walked slowly past him.

"I don't care what they say about taking them peacefully, or how much they're paying us: If I think one of those Others is anywhere close to a threat I'm firing."

"Even the kid?" another asked.

"No, idiot, not the kid. Murdering a fourteen year old pretty much buys you a first class ticket on the train to hell, right? But those two that have been running this place forever? That woman whose managed to get more than a few people killed, the dentist who shoots rifles for a hobby? Sorry, I'll ask forgiveness later, not permission first."

They were past him now, probably on the way to try to capture him, Ben thought. He didn't have time to feel fear, though: He was too angry at the realization that Hurley's team was just one moving target now.

He started back on the path when his cell phone rang and then he did panic. He glanced at the screen, looking back to see if they'd heard it. They hadn't.

"Annie?" Ben whispered, hoped against hope it was really her on the other end.

"No, not Annie. Someone who is trying to help her."

Ben heard the thick English accent and squinted, walking fast still, trying to place it. She sounded like someone he'd talked with before and his brain was going in two directions, trying to worry about the present and to connect the dots.

"Are you on the ship with her? With Sawyer?" Ben asked.

"Yes. She's locked in her room, there's a guard posted. I told her I'd keep in touch with you and relay what's going on here. They're sending in half a dozen men on zodiac rafts right now to try to try to take over the Searcher. From what I'm overhearing, they're going to try to capture them, bring them back here, take what they can get for information from the ship and then they're going to destroy it."

"Do you really believe," Ben asked, "That they're going to bring my friends back to your ship first?"

"No," she said, after a pause. "Or maybe. I don't know what I believe anymore. I thought I was signing up with the good guys. My family's been DI for so long."

"Sorry," Ben said. "You made the wrong call, but there's still time. What's your plan?"

"I got the guard away from her door once, I can do it again," he heard her say. "There are two small lifeboats left, we can take one and follow behind. We'll try to defend your friends or get them free if they're taken."

"Can you arm yourself, and Annie?" Ben asked, heard her say yes. "It'll be two on six, potentially," he said. "Stay calm, and when your moment comes don't hesitate, okay?" His voice dropped down to its most insistent, urgent tone. "You cannot let them get to the island."

"I know," she said, and before she could hang up Ben cut back in.

"What's your name?" he blurted it out.

"Elian," she said, "Elian Staples."

"Elian, do you have a sister named Charlotte?"

There was silence for a moment and Ben was afraid he'd lost her until he heard a faint 'yes'.

"And she went missing some time ago, didn't she?" Ben asked, as the Weather Vane coming into his sight a few dozen yards away.

"That's part of the reason I signed on," Elian said. "To find the island, and find her. I know that's where she was trying to go. I'm sure of it."

"Well if you save my friends and get them home," Ben said, "I can tell you what happened to her. I'm sorry, it's not going to be a happy story, but we can tell you about the last days of her life. And then you won't have to wonder anymore."

There was silence, a murmured sound that felt like grief and then a click. Ben tucked the phone in his pocket as he walked up to Richard.

"What was that about?" Richard asked. Ben looked less happy with himself than Richard had seen him look in a long time.

"The Searcher's about to be under attack," Ben said. "But we have a mole on the Valenzetti and she's now very highly motivated to help us."

Richard nodded slowly. Ben saw a flicker of both hope and disapproval in his eyes.

"Good," Richard said, turning back to business. "The guards you sent already caught two of them. I've shuttled them off to Frank in Guam."

"Excellent," Ben said. "Two down, fourteen to go. Now we need to figure out where they've taken Hurley."

**On Board the Valenzetti**

"I'm going with, and that's all there is to it," Sawyer towered over Dori Goodpeed, who avoided him by turning and walking toward the other end of the control room.

"There's no reason for you to go to the Searcher," Dori said. "That would only complicate things. Don't you believe us, that we won't hurt your friends if they surrender peacefully?"

"Don't take it too personally," Sawyer snarled, stayed put for the moment and Dori stopped. "I don't trust anybody, chief."

Elian had ended her call with Ben seconds before, walked back up the steps to the control room to find them arguing over who was going to the Searcher and who was staying. She divided her attention between them, the security team in the room, and Sawyer's computer bag on the chair to her right. He'd been holding it to him a little too closely the whole time he'd been on board and Elian suspected whatever was in it, she and Annie would need it.

"Look," Sawyer tried a calm tone and reason one more time, "I know it'll be easier to convince them if I'm there or I wouldn't be fighting with you about this."

"Did we not pay you eight million dollars," Dori asked, didn't wait for an answer to the rhetorical question. "And did we not agree to pay the other half when this is over? Not to mention you approached us. If you were so worried about your friends, you never would have brokered such a hugely profitable deal in the first place,"

He took a couple of steps back toward him.

"Really, Sawyer, what's it to you in the long con? Sorry, I meant long run."

Sawyer pounced, had Dori knocked down in half a second and his hand around his neck. The security guards were right behind, though, pulling him away and Elian saw her chance. She was gone and so was Sawyer's bag before anyone noticed.

"Keep him in here," Dori said to the guards as he left. They did, but all the way down he could hear the banging and thumping of Sawyer taking his anger out on the walls, the furniture. Dori smiled, thinking better the walls than his head.

Ten minutes later three zodiac rafts were bouncing over the waves, headed for the Searcher.

One deck down, Annie was lying on her bed when she heard a shrill screech, a huge, dull bang and the sound of a body crumpling to the ground. She had no idea the shriek had come from the person who would spring her from her prison, or that the bang was a fire extinguisher barrel slamming into her guard's head. She did see, a moment later, Elian's face in the doorway. Her hand was stretched out with a handgun pointing at the floor.

"Can you handle a gun?" Elian asked.

"If I have to," Annie said.

"You do," she said and Annie took it, checked the safety. 

"Are you afraid of heights, ladders, or small boats?" Elian asked, got a shake of the head back.

"Good," she said, "Let's go see if we can save your friends and blow mine out of the water."

**Island Iteration 4 of 5**

**Via the Weather Vane**

Kate found sleep hard to come by that night. She had no idea what time it was in the darkness of the hatch, but she guessed it was about 2:00 a.m. when she gave up and tiptoed to the refrigerator.

She tried to grab the big pitcher of water without letting too much light spill out, then turned to shove the door shut with her shoulder and jumped almost off the floor, seeing Walt right next to her.

"I didn't hear you walking over," Kate whispered it for the sake of those sleeping, held the pitcher to her heart, a touch shaken.

"I didn't walk over," Walt whispered back, looking sleepy still. "I didn't want to step on Vincent or Joop."

It was going to take awhile to get used to his skills.

Kate handed him the pitcher, gesturing for him to take it to the kitchen island.

"Want anything?"

Walt thought about it for a second.

"Any apples in there?"

"Yes," Kate reached in, rummaged around, joined him at the counter. "You're in luck." She handed him his snack and poured herself a glass of water.

"I know why I can't sleep, Walt," she said. "But why can't you?"

He'd taken a bite already, and Kate had to wait a bit for her answer.

"I just know that this will be over soon and we'll have to go home. I don't want to."

Kate looked around the room, at them all bunked in like the most unlikely camping trip in the history of the world and she laughed.

"Walt, c'mon, really? Is this about what you told me the other day that you're not good with all the new recruits on the island? It's not always going to be just us, you know, you'll have to get used to new people…"

"I know," he said, took another bite and chewed so long Kate wondered if he was going to go on. "But you know how you guys are always asking each other, 'you got my back?'"

The way he said the last four words with a mock grown-up inflection cracked Kate up so much she had to swallow a laugh as she nodded, afraid to hurt his feelings.

"Well, some of these new people," Walt said, took another small bite, "I don't think they have our backs."

There was a long pause while Walt finished his apple and Kate drank her glass of water with her eyes going dark, heavier with the realization of what was happening and what they'd all missed.

"Walt, did you tell Hurley what you've been thinking?"

"I tried," he shrugged. "But Richard and I have been busy logging all those other islands, and when we got back everything was so busy," he flipped open the door under the kitchen island, tossed the apple core in the garbage. "Everyone listens to me about this," he said, looking around the room, "But not about anything else."

Kate was leaning with her chin in her hand, shaking her head.

"Walt, I am so sorry," she said, "You've done so much for us in just a couple of months, and you're going to be so important to this place. I promise, from now on I'll be listening harder, okay?"

"Thanks," Walt said, smiling but looking concerned at the same time. "You're going back there, aren't you?"

Kate just nodded.

"You should let Hurley's dad go," Walt said, "Or I can go."

He said it so enthusiastically, so ready to protect that it broke her heart but he stopped, giving up as Kate just shook her head.

"You warned us, Walt," she said, "It's on me now. But I need you to send me home."

"Okay," he stayed where he was as Kate went to her bunk, grabbed her rifle and headed for the launch pad. "But Rose is going to be mad at me."

"No," Kate said, "Tell her to save it up and be mad at me later, okay?"

She expected to have a moment more to talk with him, but Walt wasn't wasting time. Kate felt the floor falling out from under her, the familiar spinning queasiness that made morning sickness seem like a bargain.

Then she was lying flat on her back in her own island's Weather Vane, working hard to focus her eyes on anything that would make the room stop spinning.

She heard Richard react, run over to grab her hand and pull her to her feet, saw Ben sitting at the bank of computers, pulling information.

"Are you okay?" Richard asked. She could see in his eyes that he was thoroughly confused at the angry, pained expression on her face as she stood glaring at him.

"I'm fine," she said, shaking his hand off.

"Just can't stay put," Ben said, "Can you Kate?"


	36. All hell breaks loose

**On board the Valenzetti**

"What's the plan?" Annie whispered as Elian crept toward the stairs leading to mid-deck. "Why are we taking a brick of explosives upstairs, not down?"

"You're getting in a lifeboat," Elian walked up a few steps to get a look around. "Then I'll go set it behind the engine room and we head for the Searcher. It's in range of this."

She handed down something that looked like a small, square TV remote. It had a rocker switch on the side, immobilized by a safety catch.

"Is this a detonator?" Annie asked it in the same tone she'd have used if Elian had handed her a dead bird. "I don't want…"

"You have to," Elian went all the way up the steps now, and Annie followed. "No sense leaving a remote detonator with the person who has the bomb. If I get caught, you can still set it off once you get there."

They were whispering, inching their way in the dark with their eyes out for the few officers and guards still on board. The rest were already on their way to the Searcher. Annie kept looking up at the control room.

"Do you think," she asked, "Sawyer might still have his cell phone?"

"Maybe," Elian said. "He's not precisely a prisoner, Dori's still paying him."

She did stop, then, looking equally amazed and horrified.

"You're not suggesting we get him out of there, are you? He sold you all out. He's the reason your friends are fighting for their lives," she snapped, "he's why you're headed for a lifeboat with a detonator in your damn pocket."

"I'm not doing it for him, I'm doing it for Hurley," Annie said quietly. "He'll be crushed if there's no chance to make things right with Sawyer."

"He'll get over it."

Annie stayed put, shook her head.

"Son of a bitch," Elian marched back toward the stairs and Annie was confused until she saw her pull open the glass over a panel with a fire alarm box and a long axe. She handed it to Annie.

"That ought to take care of the control room door. I'm out of here in six minutes."

Annie watched Elian go, texted Sawyer.

"coming in w. ax. We'll head fr lifeboats. Get nr door, not 2 close"

She started to wonder if he did have his phone, it took so long to see an answer.

"u dnt need me, day-glo. u said so. GTF out."

":30" she wrote, "b ready"

The response was so much faster this time.

"I wouldn't do it for you."

Annie exhaled a disgusted little sound.

"liar" she wrote. ":10"

She bolted up to the top deck, and before she could panic she wound up, swinging the axe over her head and bringing it down on the door handle. It cracked apart, the glass around it shattering, and the pain that shot up her right arm made her nearly scream.

Annie reeled back as the fractured door slowly swung opened. She saw Sawyer taking a swing at one of the guards, the other one headed her way.

Annie dropped the axe, pulled out her gun and gasped at how much it hurt to grip it and pull the trigger. But she did, three times, and a second later both guards were on the floor and Sawyer was running past her, pulling her along.

"Can't stop now," he looked back at her, grim but almost apologetic over the pace he was setting as they ran, "or we're done."

Annie nodded, kept going despite the fact that everything was getting pretty blurry and she suddenly felt sick.

They heard shouts, and a chase behind and below them as they got to the ladder and Sawyer started down first, motioning for her to follow.

"You can do this, hold the rungs with your left hand. If you fall in the water, I'll get you in the raft," He scrambled a few steps, waited to see she was moving and went on. By the time she let herself drop the last few feet in and fell against the side of the raft, he had already detached it from the ship and was hitting the motor.

"Wait!" Annie yelled. "Elian. She's planting the bomb, she'll be here any second."

"So will the goons chasing her," Sawyer said, not stopping, but Annie jumped up and fought to get between him and the engine.

"She has a gun," Annie yelled and Sawyer sat back, looking from her up to the ship. "We might need it, when we get to the Searcher, right? And she saved me."

"Hate to break it to you Annie: You're a long way from saved." Sawyer pushed her back to the other side of the boat and kept one hand on the motor, eyes on the ladder.

Then Elian was above them, almost running down, yelling for them to 'Go, go, go!" She jumped the last ten feet, landing on her backside in the raft as it took off. She caught her breath, pointed back toward the ship, and fired four fast shots at the last of the rafts as guards climbed down the ladder. Annie saw them stop, wait, go back up as it deflated with three loud pops.

They were racing over open, almost flat water now, the waves very black in the dark and the Searcher a pinpoint of light in the distance. The motor whined and a thin sea spray flew over the raft, landed on them every hundred yards or so as they skipped along.

Sawyer stared at Annie, refusing to break his gaze until she gave up, returned it. She saw his hard, unapologetic frown.

"Tell me what you've heard," he said. "Catch me up."

"I learned," Annie returned the glare, "that your colleagues want to turn the island into the world's best-hidden bio-terror weapons plant ever. They're out to make nightmares come true, maybe a billion dollars too, knock out a few governments. That's pretty much it."

Sawyer looked at Elian, who raised both her hands to say it had been news to her, too.

"That's why I'm on this raft," she shouted over the motor.

"What about on the island, what's happening there right now?" He asked.

"We don't know," Annie said. "And if they take the Searcher and we can't get it back, we may never know."

Sawyer looked out over the water again and gunned the motor.

**The Island**

**Inside the Weather Vane**

Kate sat on the lower bunk in the hatch for a while, drinking a glass of water, half listening to Richard and Ben speculate about why the DI had wired so many things to explode but hadn't destroyed them yet.

"I think I know where they're holding Hurley," she said out of nowhere and they dropped their conversation to stare at her. "The Tempest or the Arrow," she said and Ben tipped his head, like 'go on'.

"They both have a single, easily defended entrance. And they're big enough to hold us all, if they catch us all," she got up, picked up her rifle and headed for the stairs.

"Woah," Richard stepped in her way, "How about you let the recruits check it out?"

"They don't know the island as well as we do," she said, "They don't know those stations. And they may be on our side but they haven't been through what we've all been through: If something goes wrong and they don't handle it well Hurley could be in trouble. We should go get him."

Richard stared silently at her a second, shaking his head and then he looked at Ben who gave him an 'it's not a bad answer' look.

Ben picked up his own rifle and pack.

"I'll go, too, Kate. We can talk about a plan on the way."

The three of them went upstairs, saw Miles walking in a prisoner.

"One more for Guam," He handed him off to Richard with a shove, "And," he said it loud enough to count as a gloat, "his patrol partner is dead. Four down, twelve to go if you're keeping score."

Richard nodded, pointed his chin toward Ben and Kate.

"Why don't you go with them? Kate thinks she knows where they have Hurley."

They fell into silence after talking out their plan, went off the path soon after and wound their way through the trees. Ben was watching Kate's face as they went.

"You've been … very solemn since you got back, Kate," he said, finally. "What did you find out over there? Did your friends get away?"

"Some of them did," she said, "More of them would have, if you hadn't sent Richard to sink the Searcher. Well," she said, "If their Ben hadn't… if their Richard…. you know."

She looked up as she said the last few words, trying to mask what she knew was illogical anger, watching his reaction. Ben flinched so slightly most people might have missed it, but she saw it. Then he looked over at her, sympathetic but not remotely apologetic.

"I know how hard it's been to get used to our new alliance. That place and what's happening there, it must make everything so much more confusing for you."

"Wow. Understatement from Ben Linus," Kate gave him half of a half smile.

"Do you know which of them made it?" he thought to ask and she shook her head.

"John couldn't tell me."

This time Ben's reaction was easy to see as he nearly stopped in his tracks and Kate felt genuinely bad she'd said it so casually.

"You saw John? He stayed on the island?"

"Of course he stayed," Kate said. "He'll probably be running it someday."

"How was he?"

"Fine. He seemed ….content."

Now it was Ben going quiet, distant, and he kept any other thoughts he had about that to himself.

The three of them stopped a dozen yards away from the front door of the station, on a hill behind a couple of large trees. A lone guard was walking back and forth in front of it. Ben pulled a set of binoculars from his backpack.

"At least three sets of footprints," he said. "Maybe four. If Hurley's in there, looks like he has a guard or two with him."

"Stick with the plan?" Kate asked, and Ben nodded.

"Yes. They'll come out eventually, for air, some sunlight. When they do we pick the guards off at the same time, and we take Hurley home."

"Okay," Miles sat, and they joined him, ready and waiting. "But we'd better make it count when they show their faces. There are nine or ten people running around who'd like to lock us up with him."

**On Board the Searcher**

"'Well, when you're lost, said Alice,'" Max Tegmark turned the page. "'I suppose it's good advice to stay where you are until someone finds you. But who'd ever think to look for me here?'"

He stopped reading, glanced over at an only-slightly drowsy Charlie.

"Hopefully no one comes looking for us, kiddo," He heard three more pops over their heads, the crew of the Searcher firing out at something on the water. He had a pretty good idea what the something was.

Max had wanted to stay above-board and help, but Desmond wouldn't leave Penny and Penny wasn't leaving Desmond. So here he sat, a cosmologist with a gun on the stand to his right and a copy of Alice in Wonderland in his hands.

He had come downstairs for them the minute the flash of light over the water told them the DI was on the way. Upstairs the crew was booting up the ship's computers and systems, a process that only took five to ten minutes and would let them fully power up and turn the standoff into a chase. Everyone on the main deck kept looking up with the same question on their face: What's taking so long?

Then the bullets had started flying.

"One of their boats keeps weaving around the ship," Doctor Scharff told Penny as he reloaded his rifle. "They're pulling up, getting a sense of where we all are, then spinning back out and around us."

"Do you think they're looking for the best place to storm it?"

"Could be. Or they're trying to see where exactly we are. Best to keep moving."

"I'll go warn tell the guys," Penny slid slowly to the port side, motioned for him to move toward Desmond the near the front to deliver the same message.

He'd barely gotten the words out to Des when they heard two clanking sounds, one north of them, one south. They turned to see small canisters rolling around, spewing a thick, burning mist that tore at their lungs, and they scrambled for clear air only to watch six more canisters fly over the rail. Each one slammed into the walls and the floor of the ship, banging and clattering and spinning as the toxins poured out of them.

Desmond crawled around to the other side of the boat and saw the air there full of the same mist, heavy with it. A chain link fence had been thrown up over the rail, and DI guards were scrambling up it. He pulled himself up from the floor and took one of them out with a single shot, retreated around the corner only to see Doctor Scharff lying flat on his back, out cold.

Desmond could hear Heinrick and Mathias still firing, then the sound of Penny screaming. He fought for breath and his footing, but never made it back around the corner.

His face settled against the cool metal of the steel floor, and as he fought for air Desmond wondered if this was the nightmare they wouldn't actually wake up from.

Five minutes later Dori Goodspeed and the rest of the DI troops peeled off their gas masks, and took over the control room of the Searcher.

"Go tie them up where they fell," Dori said to two of the guards.

He saw two of his people headed for the downstairs quarters and he stopped them.

"Don't waste time: Their son's down there," he said, "Whoever is with him, they won't show their faces for awhile."

Then he looked at the men who were continuing the work of firing up the computer systems.

"Get us in there as quickly as you can. I need to grab anything we don't already know about the Lamp Post and the island. I want us gone and this boat sinking in under an hour."

"Are we taking them with us?" One of his men asked as the computer banks lit up, started humming.

"We'll take the baby," Dori said. "Not the rest. They stopped being part of the deal when they fought back."

**Near the Searcher**

Annie thought the raft ride felt like a macabre version of some bad decision at the carnival, when all you can wait for is the ride to end so you can stumble out. But finally they pulled up to within sight of the ship, Sawyer dropping the motor down to nothing. Elian started to object before she realized he was making sure they weren't heard on the way in.

They saw no sign of movement, just a silent deck and the control room towering above them. Then Sawyer took them in a wide circle outside the range of the lights, and as they turned a corner they saw the DI rafts, empty, tied up to the ship.

"Maybe we already won," Annie said. It sounded ridiculous to her ears but Sawyer didn't sneer as she expected. He just shook his head, looking up.

"If Des and Penny won they'd be on their way back to island. Dori said they're going to pillage the Searcher and then sink it. They might be almost done."

"What do we do now?" Annie asked and the barest hint of a sardonic smile lit Sawyer's eyes, twisted up one corner of his mouth.

"Thought you were in charge of the mission, BAMFie? You tell me."

"Sawyer, if you even….." she started to get up to get in his face, but she had leaned on her right arm and she fell back with a wince.

"You screwed up your shoulder," he said. "Guess you can add that to my tab."

She thought she caught the slightest sign of regret in his eyes, but it was dark out and she realized she was probably just seeing what she wanted to see.

"This is so far from the worst thing that you've caused…"

"Can we focus?" Elian snapped, looking between them like they were both a little crazy. "May I politely suggest that half the reason you people keep finding yourself in these situations is you start worrying a little too much about each other and then shit happens?"

"Okay, Mata Hari," Sawyer's eyes were on Elian but his hand reached for Annie's belt as he pulled her gun away from her. "You and I are going upstairs with the detonator. Annie's going downstairs and she's looking for a nice quiet corner to hide in."

He looked back at Annie.

"You don't come up until someone comes to get you."

"What if you fail?" She asked, "Or they catch me?"

"Well, they sure as hell won't sink the Searcher after we blow their ship up," he said. "And whoever wins, seems likely somebody's going to need a doctor. There's your 'hey, don't shoot me' card."

Elian secured the raft to the Searcher as Sawyer steered them the rest of the way to the ship.

"Here goes nothing," He started up the chain link steps, whispered back to Elian, "When you hear me start counting down from five, be ready to set it off."

Sawyer slid over the rail first, looked for signs of anyone guarding the mid-deck. He saw Desmond lying to his left, about twenty yards away and an unfamiliar face the same distance to his right. Everyone who was still moving looked to be upstairs. He helped Elian over first, then Annie.

They were at the stairwell in seconds, and Annie watched as Elian and Sawyer started up. Then she realized how fast it all might happen, and bolted felt downstairs into the pitch black living quarters.

Annie felt around until she found a door that opened. She slid into the supply closet next to Charlie's room, sat on the floor and stopped fighting off the inconvenient tears that started flowing. She didn't have time for them, but they were a long time coming and there was no stopping them now.

A flight and a half up, Sawyer and Elian were sitting low against the last few steps to the control room door. Sawyer was eyeing the windows, calculating which ones might blow out the lights in the room if he hit them right.

"Looks like it's gonna be about five of them, two of us," he said. "How do you like our odds?"

"I'm more worried about shooting the wrong people."

"Yeah," Sawyer said. "We could sit here thinking that one out forever. And who the hell knows when they're rolling back out that door?"

He looked at her and nodded at the detonator in her hand.

"Ready? Five…."

Elian flipped the safety to 'off'.

"Four, three," Sawyer picked the two windows he'd shoot for, aimed high.

"Two…. "

When the C4 went off, Annie couldn't believe how loud it sounded from so far away. The concussion flew over the water with nothing to stop it, and the first bang was as shocking as a fireworks grande finale you didn't know was about to happen. She never heard the sound of the control room windows shattering, had no way to see the small, yellow-orange fireball visible in the distance.

Then the sound slowly faded to a thin rumble and evaporated. She heard shouting above her, Charlie crying in the room to her left, and then, worst of all, silence.

Annie remembered Sawyer's words to wait until help came but second after second it didn't, and her panic grew. She tried to calm her breathing but all she could picture was the door flying open and getting shot to death in the corner of a storage room, so she stood shakily and felt around for something to defend herself with. Her hands recognized a toolbox, flipped it open and she pulled out a wrench and opened the door.

The rooms that had looked so dark on the way down were grey with moonlight and she took small steps toward the stairs. She heard nothing but the sloshing of waves on the boat at first, followed by the light, rhythmic banging- of someone running her way. She pulled her arm back, bolted toward the sound, and came an inch from slamming the wrench into Penny's head.

Penny was too winded even to scream, just spun around toward the wall with a choked, 'No!" and kept running toward Charlie's room.

Penny turned as she opened the door.

"Get up there," she said, "They need you."

Annie dropped the wrench and walked upstairs. The moon on the main deck was so bright now that she squinted, and when she did she could see a shadow that was Desmond struggling to his feet, pulling off the last of the nylon twine the DI had tied wrapped around his wrists and ankles. Penny had checked him, freed him before running to Charlie and now he got up and went to Doctor Sharff as she ran to Heinrick and helped him free too.

Heinrick was still disoriented, but after a couple of tries he understood her request for any and all medical supplies they had on board and he went downstairs to get them.

Annie ran over to the stairs, and ducked her head under one of Desmond's arms as he struggled up them slowly. She stood, helped prop him up with her good shoulder, heard him mumble 'slainte' as they slowly climbed.

The had to slow down to get around a dead DI guard, and the doctor in Annie was glad she'd gotten her tears and the shaking out of the way.

Then they were done climbing. Desmond pushed open the control room door, and they stepped inside.

**The Arrow Station**

It took Kate, Ben and Miles one hour, forty minutes and eight seconds to free Hurley. The forty minutes was the walk to the Arrow, the hour was spent sitting and waiting, and the eight seconds measured how long it took them to pick off the three DI guards when they stepped out for air.

Hurley looked like he wasn't sure whether to run left, right or back inside the Arrow for a second, then he saw one of the guards stretching, reaching for his rifle on the ground. Hurley kicked it away, picked it up as they ran down the hill to him.

Miles pulled plastic cuffs from his pockets, remnants from his own DI security days and he secured their prisoners while Kate and Ben went to Hurley.

"Thanks for coming, Ben," he said, just a small smile, nowhere near ready to celebrate yet.

"Thank Kate," Ben nodded to her. "She figured out where to look for you."

Hurley put one arm around her and they started marching the prisoners back to the Weather Vane.

"Anyone have a two way?" Hurley asked and took the one Ben handed him.

"Richard?" He called, and they heard the scratch and the beep as the message went through, heard a 'yep' from Richard. "We're on the way back. What's happening?"

"I just got a message from the Searcher," Richard said. "Thirty seconds ago. They're on the way at high speed."

Hurley let out a whoop and Kate smiled up at him.

"They all okay?" Hurley asked, and their hearts all fell at the silence that followed.

"No," Richard said. A little more silence, and then, "Probably better not shared on two-way."

"Okay," Hurley said. "We're on the way. Get in touch with Frank in Guam. Let him know his next guests have some injuries. Tell him to get a doctor in there if he hasn't already."

They all walked on in silence and Hurley looked down at Kate after a few seconds, smiling the saddest smile she'd ever seen on his face.

"It'll be okay," she said, "Whatever it is, it'll be okay, Hurley."

"Yeah," he said, "Eventually, I guess. It will be. Let's go with that until we hear otherwise."


	37. Two Homecomings: War is Over

**On board the Searcher**

Annie and Desmond walked into the control room and Desmond went straight for the navigation system as if it were the only thing in the room. Behind him, Annie heard a thumping noise she couldn't identify until her eyes adjusted to the dark. Then she saw it was Sawyer, walking in a circle, kicking an unconscious Dori Goodspeed over and over again.

"Stop!" She grabbed at his arm, pushed him as hard as she could when that didn't work. "We need him alive."

Sawyer raised both hands as if giving up and walked away. Annie started to say more, but then she saw Elian lying on the floor at the back of the room, blood running down one side of her face from a gash over her eyebrow.

"Help me move her," Annie called out, trying to get Elian to the bench near the control panel. "Sawyer, will you help me?"

"Yeah," he muttered, swinging around and picking up Elian himself, carrying her over Dori and around two of the DI guards who clearly were beyond any help. He set her down and walked away.

"Are you okay?" Annie asked him as she checked Elian's eyes, her pulse. She vaguely noticed Max walk in, take the other seat at the control panel, heard the hum as the ship picked up power and speed.

"I'll get them out of here," Sawyer said, dragging one of the dead guards by the shoulders toward the door, and the stairs. "And find Penny. You're gonna need more help."

"Tell her to bring blankets, drinking water and table salt," Annie yelled after him, saw Doctor Scharff come in and start dragging Dori out of the room.

"He's alive, he might need me," she tried to stop him but Scharff pushed her back.

"I need to question him more than he needs you."

"Question an unconscious man?" Annie asked.

"Cause deep enough pain," Doctor Scharff said, "And you can wake anyone up."

Annie stared at him, didn't move until they were out of sight.

She wasn't sure how long after that Penny came in, it could have been two minutes or ten. She'd been focused on checking Elian, listening to Desmond on the phone with Richard, and between the hushed voices behind her, the rocking of the boat and the physical coming-down from the terror of a few minutes ago she'd started to feel herself falling into a trance.

Penny set the supplies she'd asked for near her left hand, and that's when Annie looked up and saw her, Sawyer behind her.

"Mathias is hurt," Penny said. "It's bad. He's downstairs, can you go to him?"

Annie got up, pointed to Elian.

"If she wakes up, get her to drink some salt water, she's in shock," She stopped near Sawyer on her way by, started to check him for injuries, her fingers running along his hair, his neck, until he felt it and flung them away.

"Go," he tried to walk away but Annie grabbed at one shoulder to turn him around. She stumbled, jolted back out of her wooziness when she realized the dark dampness running across the back of his maroon shirt was not sweat.

"What the hell, Sawyer?" she pulled him toward the floor. He tried to object, but found that gravity and his growing numbness were on her side. Annie pulled the medical kit over, dug around for scissors and cut the back of his shirt open in two seconds.

"The bullet is still in your back," she dug around again, poured peroxide over it and got a loud hiss and a string of f-bombs in return.

"Desmond," Annie yelled, "How far are we from the island?"

"Twelve hours," he said, "maybe a little less."

Annie said nothing but her eyes narrowed and Sawyer got her attention with his.

"Don't like the math?" He asked, pushed himself back to sit against the wall, shaking his head. "Me either. But this isn't the first time I've been here. Go help them first. Please."

Annie put one of the blankets behind his shoulder, and ran downstairs.

**The Island**

**Weather Vane Station**

**Thirty minutes later**

Hurley's group got back at the same time that his recruits pulled in with three more of the DI spies, but there wasn't time to celebrate. They could see on Richard's face that he had something huge to tell them, but he kept quiet until the prisoners had been shuttled off to Guam.

"How are they?" Hurley asked as Richard waved them all to the steps and outside.

"It's not good. A lot of injuries … worse."

Richard kept going fifty or more yards away from the hatch before he stopped.

"Your interrogator got a lot out of Goodspeed," He looked at Hurley and back to the hatch. "Like why they wired a bunch of the buildings: it's partly about cutting off communications, but the explosions will also be enough to push us off course – they'll change the formula."

Richard could see it wasn't adding up to his friends.

"The formula is the only way to find the island again when it moves," he said. "They were going to make it impossible for us to find out way back. And Doctor Scharff says the spies here were told if the Valenzetti fell out of touch, they should set it all off. So it could happen any minute now."

"Is the Weather Vane set to go off?" Kate asked, and saw a 'yes' in Richard's face. "Your parents, Claire…. we have to get them all back," she clearly wanted to bolt that way, but Hurley stopped her.

"Go get them, Richard," he said and Richard was off without another word.

"He'll get them home," Hurley said to Kate, seeing her face. "He'll get it done. Ben, get some of the recruits. We need everything they can get out of the supply room carried to the beach that's like a tenth of a mile down the hill from the barracks,"

Hurley started leading them that way as Ben called out for help on the two-way.

"Let Richard know where we'll be. We've lived on a beach before," Hurley said, "We can do it again."

**On board The Searcher**

**Twenty minutes later**

Annie had been on the main deck sitting quietly next to Mathias' body for a while when she felt Penny's hand on her shoulder, heard her crying softly.

"I'm so sorry," Annie said, "I tried, but we don't have what I needed to save him."

"Your friend from the ship was talking for a moment," Penny said softly. "Sawyer is out cold."

"Those are probably both good things," Annie said, "Come help me with them."

They walked back into the control room and found it almost silent now. Desmond and Max were watching the monitors, the programs with their directions to the island. They didn't look up as Annie went to Elian and then walked back to sit next to Sawyer.

Annie started pulling things from the medical kit, handed Penny towels to hold.

"You don't have any serious meds, do you?" She asked. "Antibiotics? Slightly more hardcore painkillers than Advil?"

"No," Penny said. "We planned for cuts and falls, not this."

Annie tipped Sawyer forward from the wall and Penny reached out to brace him as she worked.

"Are you going to take the bullet out?" Penny asked.

"No. The bleeding has stopped. I can wait until we get home. As long as we get there soon. Please, let us get there soon."

Penny was about to ask Desmond for an update when she heard Max shout a curse word she'd never heard out of a certified genius, saw Des letting his head slump into his hands over the control panel. They looked so exhausted and she tried to remember when they'd all slept last.

"What's happening?" she helped Annie set Sawyer back against the wall and went to them. "What is it?"

"We've lost them," Desmond said. "The island moved. It's gone, and I can't find it."

"Oh, no," Annie leaned against the wall, dropped to sitting next to Sawyer and looked from him to Elian, holding her forehead. "Oh no."

**The Island**

**Beach camp near the former Dharma Barracks**

Hurley, Miles, Ben and Kate were helping their team set up tents, dragging crates of food when the first blast hit it. Everyone stopped as they listened to explosion after explosion, some of them close enough to be felt, others a faint echo. They counted them silently, flinching a little with the small ones, jumping at the big ones.

Then the last one died out, and to Hurley's surprise and great pride everyone looked at each other for a few seconds and then went back to work.

"We should go to the Weather Vane," Ben was trying to get someone, anyone on his two way, even though they both knew the Flame was gone again. "See if they all made it back."

"Take three guys and a couple of stretchers," Hurley clapped him on the back as he walked toward Kate. "Be careful: There are still six DI out there and they hate us enough to blow up everything we own."

**On board the Searcher**

"Why can't you find it?" Penny asked, watching Desmond and Max scour the control panel, comparing notes. "We have the formula from the Lamp Post…"

"I know. It should be here," Desmond said, sounding mystified, reaching a hand back as if to ask for some patience. "It should be here somewhere."

Annie stood again, turned in a circle and froze, staring out behind the ship. Then she let go of a shriek so loud, so from her toes that it could have sent Penny into shock if she weren't simultaneously distracted by Desmond and Max cheering loudly, jumping out of their chairs.

Penny turned with them, and almost fell backward at the sight of the island about three miles in the distance. The familiar curves and twists of the landscape told them all they were a few minutes away from the Pala Ferry landing.

"How the hell?" Penny whispered.

"I don't know," Max said, "I don't care, let's get there before it moves again. The island saved us ten hours of getting home."

**The Barracks Beach Camp**

**One hour later**

With communications down, all that was left was to wait and see who would come home in one piece and who would not.

Hurley convinced Kate to stop putting together tents, to let Miles and the recruits take care of it while the two of them sat under a tree and downed bottles of water and watched the surf coming in and the sun creeping toward noon.

"They'll be okay," He said. "They'll all be okay," and Kate rolled her eyes.

"Hurley, you've said that five times. It's not all on you, you know? It's not."

"It feels like it is."

He'd barely gotten the words out of his mouth when moving figures far to their right drew their eyes that way. They saw David and Carmen first, then Walt behind them and Rose with her arm around a very confused-looking Claire.

Kate didn't make a sound, just stood and ran to them and Hurley saw her spin Walt around and around, heard him laughing. Then she walked to Claire as the rest of the camp circled around them all, clapping and smiling.

Hurley stood watching the celebration, waiting as the seconds ticked by and there was no sign of Richard and Ben. Then there they were, finally, Ben helping a disoriented, disheveled and shaken Richard along.

Hurley felt himself breathing again as he started that way.

"Someone stayed behind too long at the Weather Vane after he got them all home," Ben told Hurley. "He was determined to protect the core operating system."

"It still works," Richard yelled very, very loudly, and Hurley realized Richard couldn't hear a damned thing, his own voice included. "It's half blown-apart, but it works. I tested it again before we started back."

"Why don't you take him over there," Hurley said to Ben, turning to point to the spot behind them where the recruits had gotten a couple of campfires going.

He stopped cold, staring, his brain hardly sure it should accept what his eyes were saying to him as more familiar faces walked out from the brush at the other far end of their new camp. Then a wave of relief hit, tears stinging as another cheer erupted and people started running toward where Penny and Desmond were walking toward them, Charlie in Desmond's arms and Heinrick behind them.

"Thank you," Hurley said to nothing and everything, looking at the sky, the beach, and then his eyes caught a confused and scared looking Claire, Rose's arm still around her shoulder and another feeling washed over him: He wanted this so over, so done - so they could move on to what was next.

"Miles," Hurley called, waited for him to get nearer. "Take a few of the guys and go get the last six DI that are out there, okay? Give them a chance to surrender, but if they don't…"

"You got it, boss," Miles was gone before he could finish, and Hurley walked over to hear people starting to gently ask a very exhausted-looking Desmond and Penny some questions.

"They're at the Staff," he heard Des saying, "All three of our new doctors. We made sure she was okay, that she had what she needs to help them before we left. "

"The Staff is still standing?" Hurley asked and Penny nodded.

"She?" Ben had walked up behind Hurley.

"Annie," Desmond said, "Your girl saved our asses, Ben: Annie and Sawyer and the woman who defected – Elian. We wouldn't be here without them."

"Elian is Charlotte's sister," Ben said it almost under his breath, clearly sinking into a pool of relief to hear that Annie was on the island and tending to the wounded, "So you all know when you meet her."

There was a stunned little silence while that hit, and then Kate looked at Ben and then over toward the path to the Staff.

"Let's go see if they need any help, okay?"

He followed her, and Hurley led Penny and Desmond to the beach.

"Tell me what I can get you?"

"Somewhere to sleep," Penny said. "Food and somewhere to sleep."

"You got it," he said. "The rest of your lives, you tell me what you want and I'll make it happen, okay?"

"We want to not leave here," Desmond said. "We talked about it. I'm sorry, I know you want us to run the Searcher for you and we can discuss it later, but…"

"Done," Hurley said. "Nothing to discuss, man," he opened the front of the largest of the tents and waved them in. "Kick back, we'll bring you dinner. Welcome home."

"Thank you, Hurley," Penny said.

He saw them dropping down on the sleeping bags, Charlie between them, and he knew they'd be out beyond all waking before anyone got food to them. He sent it over anyway just in case, and then he started on his way to the Staff.


	38. Union and Reunion

**Outside The Staff Station**

"We should have made Richard come with us," Kate said, walking circles in front of the Staff with the rifle on her shoulder pointed at the ground.

They'd arrived to find Elian lying in the infirmary, recovering, and Annie in surgery taking the bullet out of Sawyers back. She had Max and Ben and Doctor Scharff helping her out and so they'd walked back upstairs to wait for word.

"Richard will be fine," Hurley was leaning against the hatch, content to watch her pace and to listen to the crickets for a while. "The blast may have done a number on his hearing, but I'm guessing it'll be better by tomorrow or we'll get him out here. Annie's going to have to sleep after she gets through this surgery, they've been up and mega-stressed for what? Like, fifty hours?"

"Tomorrow," Kate said it in a way that suggested both how lucky they were to have one and how much there would be to do then. "That's also when we need to decide for Claire."

"I know what you want to happen there," Hurley said and she saw a small smile, a look that was almost challenging her, suggesting he wasn't convinced yet.

"She needs them, Hurley," Kate stopped pacing. "She'll be fine if she has them, but she'll never be fine again if she doesn't. And we can make it happen."

Hurley didn't say anything for so long that she thought he wasn't going to.

"We'll put it to a full vote- every one of us," he finally said. "If it's unanimous, then that's what we'll do. Work for you?"

"Yeah," she smiled, "that works for me."

They both heard someone headed their way on the path from the beach. Kate started to pull the rifle off her shoulder, stopped when they saw Miles appear with several of the recruits, boxes of food and supplies in their hands. Miles stopped a few feet from Hurley.

"We brought food," he motioned to where the rest were taking the boxes inside. "Figured a few people might need to stay here with the wounded a while."

"Dude, thank you for thinking of that," Hurley said. "And for coming to tell me it's over. That is why you're here, right?"

"It's done," Miles said. "They're gone. Some to Guam… some not. Want details?"

"No," Hurley said, "I don't. Later, but for now—just, thank you," he saw Kate looking straight up at the sky in relief and a deep feeling of calm washed over him as he shook Miles' hand.

"What are we celebrating?"

They heard an unfamiliar voice behind them, turned to see a happy but exhausted Max standing on the top step.

"Max, I'm so sorry I haven't had a chance to talk with you," Hurley walked over, shook his hand, led him to Miles and Kate. "Max Tegmark, meet my friend Kate Austen, and my head of security, Miles Straume. Max is our new cosmologist. He helped build the Weather Vane.

Hurley saw Miles freeze as Max was shaking hands with Kate.

"Um, Hurley, your head of what?" Miles said, "I just came to help you…"

"Yeah," Hurley said, "Seriously, what are you going to do now? Go back to L.A. and chase cheating spouses and lying business partners around with an iPhone for a few bucks a pop?"

There was a pause and Miles reached his hand out to Max.

"Hi, Mr. Tegmark. I'm Miles Straume. I'm Hurley's new head of security."

"Congratulations," Max said, "I'm sure you'll take very good care of us. Maybe you could ask one of your people to help walk Doctor Scharff and me back to the camp? If I don't crash on purpose soon, I will by accident…"

"Of course," Miles rounded up a recruit with a torch and got their newest team members to the beach just as they heard more feet coming up the stairs of the Staff, saw Annie leaning against the doorway.

She had discarded her surgical garb and gloves and was standing there in the same jeans and shirt she'd woken up in on the Valenzetti a couple of days ago, but somehow she was still lit up from within a little.

"I can't wait," she said "to study this island when I'm not three quarters dead. I seriously cannot freaking wait."

"They're okay, then?" Hurley asked.

"They're fine. They'll both be fine. They should need transfusions and pressure bandages and blood pressure meds and ten other things I don't have…. but they don't need them. It's like every few minutes they get measurably better than they were before. It's just… stunning."

"What can we do for you?" Kate asked.

"Honestly," Annie was snapped out of her reverie on the miracles of the island by the question. "I could really, really use a hot shower. And new clothes."

"There's one here!" Kate led her downstairs. "I'll show you. Clothes… I think there are robes and pajama sets in the storage room, I'll dig them out. We can bring you new things in the morning."

Hurley followed them into the hatch, looking for Ben. He found him washing down the surgical room with a precision only he could bring to the job, gloves up to his elbows, wielding a bottle of anti-bacterial cleaner like a rifle.

"You talk with Annie yet?" Hurley got right to the point.

"No," Ben said, "She's exhausted. We all are. And this is not a night to talk about the future, it's one to simply get through."

"And we did," Hurley said, let the thought sink in a second. He saw Ben stop, kicking himself mentally, stripping off the gloves to walk over and shake his hand.

"Congratulations, Hurley. I had no doubt we'd win. I'm just glad we're all here to celebrate."

Hurley ignored his hand, enfolded him in a bear hug and got an embarrassed, deep, chortling laugh out of Ben.

"We'll pop the champagne tomorrow," Hurley said, starting back toward the hatch to wait for Kate and head home. "My dad said when this was done he was going to host the barbeque – like, a three day food festival."

"Sounds great."

"Ben," Hurley stopped, "Promise me one thing, okay – no pushing her away to beat up on yourself. No more of that."

Ben gave him half of a silent bow, put the gloves back on and went back to work.

"I promise, Hurley. I have a plan, actually. It's a risky one…. but I'm going with it."

"I'd expect nothing less," Hurley said, turning for the stairs.

The Staff was silent when Ben got done cleaning up. He walked out to the infirmary to see Sawyer and Elian in their well-medicated slumbers, Annie twice as out as they were on a cot across the room.

Then he walked to the Staff shower, digging pajamas of his own from the supply room on the way. A few minutes later he pulled a cot next to hers, tucking his backpack underneath, sliding a tiny item he'd pulled out of it underneath his pillow.

Five hours later Annie woke up to see Ben sleeping, went to check Elian and Sawyer. She stumbled back to the cot and was out again in seconds.

Eight hours after that Ben's eyes snapped open to see Annie curled up to his right, watching him, straight-faced. She smiled, then, and it hit him that every time she smiled he would get a little better, a little surer that everything could only be good now. It was something he hadn't even thought to look forward to.

"Good morning," he said.

"'Good afternoon," she corrected him. "Ben, there's something I need to say…"

"Did you sleep well?" Ben ran right over her words and she leaned up a little, looking confused.

"Yeah, great, but listen, I…"

"These cots are horrible we should order new ones."

Annie was staring at him as if she was wondering what the hell he was going on about.

"Why aren't you letting me get a word…"

"And these pillows," he said it disdainfully, like he couldn't believe how shabby the accommodations were. "They're like bags of rocks."

He half sat up, flipped his pillow around and when he did a little black box skittered out and landed on the seam the edges of their two cots made.

"Well that couldn't have helped," Ben said it disingenuously, fighting to hold on to the look of confusion on his face as he picked it up and put it in her hand.

"This must be yours."

"It's not mine," She said, "I've never seen it before."

"It's yours if you'll accept it," he said. Annie pulled the top off of the box and dropped back down with a grin on her face, one hand on her forehead.

"No way," she said, "No way."

"Annie DeGroot," Ben said, "Will you marry me?"

Annie dropped the ring in shock, letting go not only of it but also of stressful days and weeks she thought she'd have to spend convincing him they were supposed to be together.

Ben caught it, staying calm for her, set it at the top of her ring finger.

"Can I put it on, then?"

"Yes," she said, "It's never coming off. It's so beautiful."

"It was my mother's," Ben said, "My father was a miserable bastard but to his credit he loved her beyond words. And he brought me here, where I met you. Those are the things I'll think of when I see it now."

She started to reach over to kiss him and was interrupted by a long, low, rumbling snort of derision that turned into a slurred string of cuss words from the other side of the room.

"Will you two please," Sawyer said, "get a room that isn't this one? And will someone tell me why I'm handcuffed to a bed if I'm not also naked?"

"Good morning, Sawyer," Ben got up and started collecting his things. "I'll go get Hurley and you can ask him anything you want. He's about the only one here talking to you today I'm pretty sure. And probably her," he waved to Annie, "because she's an angel."

"Stop," Sawyer mock-shouted, "Seriously, these pain meds have me queasy, I don't need you giving them any more help. Why do you have me so drugged up?"

Annie walked to stand next to him as Ben went back to the shower to change.

"Partly pain relief. Partly so you won't run," she said.

"I've got no running in me," Sawyer stared up at her, not angry just flat. "You should have let me go down with that boat."

"Screw that," Annie said. "They're mad at you, Sawyer, they're furious, but no one's giving up on you. And they won't let you give up on yourself so forget it."

"Gee, thanks, Pollyanna," she didn't respond to the gibe and he pointed with his chin toward Elian. "She okay?"

"She will be, yes."

"Penny and Desmond and their kid?"

"They're good, they're at the camp. Charlie was shook up, but he's young, hopefully he'll forget all this. Mathias from their crew died."

"Any other updates?" he asked.

"No, except I'm pretty sure Ben wouldn't have stayed here if it weren't over, so… I'm thinking it's done. We're safe."

"Great. Now would you mind leaving me the hell alone for awhile?"

"Sure," Annie started toward the little kitchen, was halfway out of the recovery room when she heard him.

"Annie?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. I'll go get you some breakfast. I don't know about you, but I'm starving."

**Island iteration one of five**

**Via the Weather Vane**

**29 hours later**

Richard opened his eyes, found himself under water, pushed and kicked a touch until he was bobbing, treading water on the wavy, grey surface. He was relieved to see Claire already up there, floating calmly on her back as instructed, her arms making small circles, her blue eyes huge staring at the sky.

"Look… " Claire said. "Look at the clouds. They're soooo beautiful."

Richard smiled. His hearing was only half back and he couldn't make out her every word, but he could hear her cooing at the clouds, see her reaching up to try to grab them, and he was glad they had Bernard administer a touch of laughing gas before the trip. It would help make a girl who never had been half-drowning at all appear at least a quarter so.

He set one hand under her back, helping support her as Walt popped to the surface, swimming over to help.

"Where's Desmond?" Walt asked, pointing to the shore for emphasis.

"It'll take a minute," Richard said, "They were at least a tenth of a mile inland. He's coming."

It was Walt who almost nixed the whole thing. They'd all taken a break from the celebrations the day after the war to discuss it. Everyone who got a vote was in the room: Bernard, Rose, Ben, Richard, Kate, Penny and Desmond, Miles and of course, Hurley. Walt was the one holdout.

"If that island's Claire drowned, we should save her," he insisted, and no amount of explaining that she'd been pulled out too far, too fast would change his mind. "We could go back to before she even got pulled out to sea."

"I know, but there are unintended consequences, as Kate found out," Richard explained, once someone wrote out Walt's objection for him to read. "We could save her that day, and she could drown the next and two other people could die trying to save her."

"Walt," Kate had said, "I did what I did because my heart was broken and I felt like I didn't have a choice. And I don't even know yet if it worked, I might not have helped them at all. Richard is right."

"And they'll be okay?" Walt asked, and Kate felt her heart soar. They almost had him convinced.

"Yes," Kate reached to hand him the report Richard had worked up based on the work they'd done checking out the other islands. "You were there, remember? On this island they are here longer, over three years – but then more of them made it home. Charlie even moved to Australia to be near his brother and near Aaron, too. This way… they all go home together."

And so Walt had changed his vote and the decision was made: Claire would get the life she needed to be whole again. It just wouldn't be with them.

"We're here, Claire," Richard said near her ear, making sure she heard. "Remember, when we let go of you… it'll be Desmond who's coming to pull you in. Don't fight him, okay?"

"They'll be there?" Claire asked, her arms and legs flipping around a little disconcertedly, getting anxious. "Charlie and Aaron?"

"Yes," Walt said, "We promise – they'll be there. You just have to remember, like we talked about: They won't know what you've been through. You just have to let it all go, okay?"

"Yes," Claire said, tracing the edges of the clouds with one finger, then bringing her hand back down to Richard's arm. "I promise. I don't care…. as long as I have them."

"Here he comes," Richard said as he caught sight of Desmond in the distance, swimming their way, cutting broad, deep strokes in the water in a straight line to Claire. "It's all going to be fine now, Claire, I promise."

Richard and Walt dropped underwater, still supporting Claire and waited, timed it, until Richard nodded to Walt a few seconds later and the two of them disappeared. Claire sank for a second, two seconds, three, swallowed some water and nearly went under before Desmond grabbed her waist, wrapped an arm around her shoulders, started pulling her home.

"Hold on Claire," she heard his voice, just as Richard promised. "Just hold on to me, okay?"

Walt had gone home as requested. Richard threw himself hundreds of yards away to a spot behind the beach where he could watch the rescue and make sure all went well. He was leaning against tree when he jumped, startled to see Kate to his left, leaning against the next tree, watching too.

"Kate," He caught his breath, shook his head at her. "Hurley told you to stay home and wait for word from us. Damn, you are stubborn."

Kate nodded, shrugging, got near his ear.

"I know, but look, Richard," they both watched as Desmond hit the beach and Charlie was there in a flash to meet them. A second later they heard Claire calling for Aaron and someone was handing him to her, the three of them were in their own little puddle of relief and tears and laughter, sitting in a circle barely out of the reach of the waves.

"How could I not be here to see that?"

They watched in silence for a while as the group at the shoreline got up, half carrying Claire back to the camp. Claire had Aaron over her shoulder, an arm over his little back like she was never going to put him down again. Then she stopped, looked up at Charlie. They were too far away to hear voices, but it wasn't hard to read her lips.

"I thought I was never going to see you again…." She told him, broke out crying, and Charlie folded them both in his arms, rocking her side to side.

Richard looked back at Kate, caught her wiping her eyes, turning away.

"Good?" he asked?

She nodded.

"Let's go home, then."


	39. Banished

**The Barracks**

**Thursday Morning**

**Three days after the end of the war**

Hurley and Kate sat at the last of the picnic tables near the battered and tilting gazebo, watching the recruits work. Some were busy hauling away remains of the destroyed buildings while others sawed and hammered the beginnings of new bungalows together.

The DI spies had, happily, left the storage and dining rooms alone. A few of the houses were in good shape, too. Hurley had given one to Desmond and Penny, and Kate was staying in their spare room. Another one went to Ben and Annie as an engagement present and a third was open for anyone who needed an occasional break from sleeping the beach.

"What are you going to do with him?" Kate asked Hurley, referring to Dori Goodspeed. Some of Hurley's recruits had shipped him to Hydra Island the night the Searcher returned. He had plenty of food but no boats, effectively creating his own Alcatraz. It had been three days now.

"Doctor Scharff wants to question him more," Hurley said. "But we know the D.I.'s done now, so I think that's just kind of wrong… it's 'mean because we can be,' you know? I'm gonna do the same thing I'm doing with the guys we hauled to Guam."

Kate nodded, thinking what an ingenious plan Hurley had come up with. He sent Richard to go help Frank fly them each to remote places around the world, leaving them with a hundred dollars in their pockets. It was enough to not starve, but not so much that they'd get anywhere very fast. The ones who'd done the least harm would go to beautiful places: Micronesia, the Galapagos.

"Where will you send Dori?" Kate asked.

"Irkutsk," Hurley said, shrugged when she looked confused. "It's just a little northwest of the middle of southeast nowhere, Siberia.

"Sweet," Kate smiled.

Annie had been walking their way from the Staff. Now she was strolling up to them, setting a folder with exam results on the table. Hurley's backside left the seat as hers hit it.

"I'll go check in with Ben," he said. "And Kate, the speed I'm going away at: It's related to how much you don't want me in the room when you have the baby."

"No worries, Hurley," she stayed sitting with her elbows on the table, her chin in her hands. "I'm not so sure I want to be there myself."

Annie sat looking at Kate, peering into her eyes, her own eyes squinting.

"You okay, Kate?"

"You tell me," she started to joke, but saw Annie wasn't having that. "I've been too busy to think about anything," Kate said. "And now I do have time and it hit me I'm having a baby in about fourteen weeks. So now… I'm scared."

"Well, this is probably only going to make that worse," Annie said, held up a hand when she saw the look of fear crossing Kate's face. "Everything's fine – baby's great, you're great, but it's not going to be anywhere close to that long."

"What?" Kate sat up straight. They'd all speculated that things looked to be going faster than normal, but hearing it coming out of Annie's mouth was still a shock.

"You've only gained twelve pounds," Annie said, "And six of it is baby. And he's starting to turn. And with everything else I'm seeing…. I'm guessing he might want out by a week from this weekend."

It was Thursday.

Kate didn't move for so long that Annie put an arm on hers and shook her a little.

"How do you feel about that?" she asked.

"Excited. Terrified," Kate said. "And wishing I didn't have to go through it alone."

"You're not alone," Annie said, "All of us are here for you."

"You know what I mean," Kate said.

A new group of recruits appeared, walking from the general direction of the Staff. They were circled around someone they were leading to the last of the empty bungalows. Kate's eyes picked out Sawyer, and though she didn't move, her stare made Annie glance back and then forward again.

"He's better, he doesn't need to be in the Staff anymore," Annie said. "They're going to hold him in one of the houses until Hurley…."

Kate nodded.

"Anything else I need to know?" she asked, and Annie shook her head, got up to go.

"Just take some time to do nothing, chill out, sleep a lot…." She peered at Kate again like she was trying to read her mind and make an impression at the same time. "And promise me you won't do anything crazy?"

"Like?" Kate asked, but she was smiling.

"You know what I mean," Annie headed back in the direction of the staff.

Kate sat in silence for a minute, and then a flurry of sound and motion altered her to look right. Bernard and Rose, Walt and his charges were headed for their cabin.

"Promise me," Kate said, getting up and falling into step with them, "This is just for a week or so. Right?"

"Absolutely," Rose said, watching Walt run, Vincent ahead of him and Joop just behind him. "Living space is at a premium, and we have a cabin. Might as well use it. And besides, Walt deserves a week to be a kid and hang out and play in the woods, doesn't he?"

"Yeah," Kate said, "I guess it's just stressing me out to see anyone walking away."

"We're not walking away," Rose said, "We're taking a vacation. Besides, there's nothing saying you can't come see us and hang out too. Might do you good."

"You're right," Kate stopped, headed back to the barracks with a little wave. "It might. I'll come by in a day or two."

She dodged the work crews and headed to the bungalow where they were holding Sawyer. All the way there she was working up an argument in her mind about why they should let her in to see him, but when she got there the guys posted at the front door just stepped to either side.

Then she remembered she was a candidate and she could go wherever she wanted.

"Want one of us to go with you?" a guard asked, seeing her confusion.

"No, that's okay, thanks."

It took her eyes a second to adjust to the inside light, and then she saw Sawyer stretched out on his couch, the back of his head to her and a paperback in his hands. He'd heard the door, but didn't move beyond tilting his head back slightly to see that it was her walking in.

Two overstuffed chairs sat at slight angles to the couch, and Kate walked around to face him, dropped into one of them, sitting back.

Sawyer looked at her silently for a few seconds, then spread the book out on his chest and stared up at the ceiling. She heard him sigh lightly.

"If you are here to lecture me save your energy. I don't want to hear…"

"We might not see each other again," Kate said. "And I have three questions for you. I don't want to go around wondering about them the rest of my life. "

"I did what I did for all of us," he said it with less of an edge in his voice, but she cut him off with a wave, up out of her chair and half hanging over him.

"You did not do this for us," Kate spat it out, sitting slowly back down, crossing her feet underneath her. "Or you would have told us. If you were doing it for us, you'd have told us so."

He flipped the book on the floor, eyes back on the ceiling and arms at his sides.

"Fine. Get on with it."

"When did you start planning this?"

"A few minutes after we took off from the island. Before we landed in Nauru."

"So all that time you lived in my house, and you seemed so down and I thought I was helping you…"

"I was arranging to get half the freaks who messed with my life to destroy the rest of the freaks who screwed with us. And spring Hurley from this miserable chunk of granite. And, hey, also make 16 million bucks in the process, which I'm pretty sure we could all use. And that," Sawyer said, "Counts for question number two. You get one more."

He kept his eyes up, the tips of the fingers of one of his hands on the bridge of his nose like he was getting a headache. He didn't see Kate turning slowly red and then pale as she went past angry to sad, then to numb.

"That's okay," she said eventually. "I only have one more I really needed to ask, anyway. How did you think you were going to do it?"

"Do what?" This time he was the one spitting it out, glaring sideways at her.

"How did you think you were going to live the rest of your life without us?"

She saw his face fall before he lay back again.

"I'll do fine."

"No," Kate said, "You won't. You may think so, but when the shock of everything that's happened the last seven months starts to wear off and you have no one, absolutely no one who knows what it's been like…. Damn, Sawyer, as pissed off and self-destructive as you already are, what kind of shape are you going to be in then?"

"I think your nesting instincts are taking hold of you," he said "You're getting all warm and fuzzy and worrywart. I seem to remember you doing a fine job playing people, getting them to do whatever you wanted them to do right then. That was what, five, six months ago?"

"I've done what I've done," Kate stood, took a couple of steps toward the door. "But I've never sold us out. You need to get that, and you need to fix what you broke. So when Hurley gives you your choice of punishments I really hope you'll take the one that keeps you with us. Please think about it. If you do, then someday maybe we can get to a point where this'll all be just be a vague memory of a bad bump in the road."

"My choice," Sawyer sat up, "of punishments? You can't freaking make someone pick their poison."

"Maybe," Kate said, "But you can tell them the options and warn them what they'll get if they don't," she said, "And that's making you pick. Honestly, Hurley's going hard-ass on you as far as I'm concerned. I'm surprised at him."

For the first time Sawyer looked worried, and she realized it was hitting him that his life was about to be not in his control again.

She walked the rest of the way to the door and looked back. She could see a confused look spreading over his face as he analyzed her expression, and then the confusion turned to disgust.

"You are not still expecting an apology, are you?"

"I hoped maybe," she said, "'Sorry' would be a place to start."

"Can't say it," he shook his head. "Because I'm not."

"Goodbye, Sawyer," she turned the knob.

"Not goodbye, see you later. And what's this 'I'm never going to see you again' shit?"

"Too complicated to explain right now," she said. "You'll know eventually. So just in case- if this is it, good luck to you."

She slid out and shut the door before she could hear anything more out of him, never even noticed the guards as she walked past them. Then she headed straight for her room, feeling heavy, feeling like she wanted to sleep for a year.

**The Barracks**

**Thursday Night**

Sawyer put his dinner dishes in the sink and walked to the living room, started flipping through a stack of record albums on the shelf along the far wall. He stopped when he heard a knock at the door and turned to stare at it.

"Why are you knocking?" He yelled, just asking, not angry. "This is a jail cell not an apartment. Come in."

"You decent?" Hurley popped his head in, then himself, and Sawyer saw he was carrying a six-pack of beer. "Got a bottle opener?"

"Sure," Sawyer walked back to the kitchen, joined Hurley in the living room, sitting opposite him in one of the chairs. Hurley opened them each one, then tossed a folder on the coffee table. "Read that," he said."

"What the hell is this? 'Island iteration five of five,'" he flipped the folder open started reading. "This about those other islands you all have been monkeying with?"

"Richard and Walt did some warp speed studies on them," Hurley said, pausing for a sip. "Well, all except two of five, that was one fugly place and we cut it loose fast. This one – their Sawyer died in Australia, so he was never on our plane. And well… keep reading."

Hurley sat back, peeling at the label on his beer, glancing at Sawyer as he read and he watched his face change every few seconds as he did. Then he saw him flinch, his eyes narrowing, and he sat back in the chair looking down at the floor, the folder still in his hands. Hurley hadn't seen him this upset since the days after the incident, and it was all he could do to stay impassive, not look away and not fold.

"Just let me go, Hurley," Sawyer finally said, his voice strained. "Put me on the sub or have Frank fly me to Los Angeles and I swear you'll never hear from me again if that's what you want."

"Can't," Hurley said. "You screwed us over and I don't know what you'll do if I let you go. There's probably no way in hell you're going to believe this right now, but I'm thinking of you, too."

"So, what? I can go to this place where Ben let her leave and she's living in Portland, and what guarantee is there I'll ever make it there, too?"

"Really great odds, actually," Hurley said. "Read it again after I go, everything's in there about how they get away and you'll have the whole playbook. But if you do go there, you have to know I'm cutting that place loose just like two of five – that's it, forever. You'll never see any of us again."

"And if I don't go there?"

"You go here for a month," Hurley tossed one more folder on the table but Sawyer never moved an inch toward it. "Three of five. It's empty: Just the heart of the island and a bunch of birds, bugs, frogs and boar. You'll have food drops, better shelter than we had the first time around, and we'll have Richard and Walt come check in with you. A month of quiet, to think, and then you come live with us and help us rebuild and teach Miles how to be better at his job. We get your help and you get better. Everybody wins."

"For how long?" Sawyer asked.

"Until I say so," Hurley said. "Until you're really with us again, then you can go. And you won't fool me- I'll know when it's time."

"Ben come up with this?" Sawyer asked, sounding drained.

"Nope. All mine," Hurley got up, taking his beer and leaving the rest. "I'm giving you a night and a day and a night, and then if you won't pick I will. You've been going around like nothing matters to you but revenge," he headed for the door. "I'm hoping you'll find out otherwise. 'Night Sawyer."

**The Barracks**

**Friday Morning**

Sawyer was sitting on the couch reading through the folders Hurley had left when he heard a tap on the door and it opened.

"Hello?"

"Over here, BAMFie," he turned a page as Annie walked in. "Coffee's on if you want some."

He said it straight-faced, his voice a blank too, never looked up or over.

"For someone who's about to be banished from the kingdom, I have an awful lot of visitors. You sure you all won't miss me more than I'll miss you?"

Annie walked over and sat next to him, pulling the folders away and setting them down, taking his nearest hand in hers. He flung her away, and she picked his hand back up and he flung her away again.

"Stop it," she said, took his hand again. "I'm here to listen. You're never going to figure this out if you don't have someone to talk through it with. I care but not like they do, it's got almost nothing to do with me. And I won't tell anyone anything you say."

"Shouldn't you be somewhere making little pop-eyed babies?" Sawyer asked. "Neither of you is getting any younger, you know?"

"So quick," Annie said, her voice hard but a smile in her eyes. "So glib and quick. You've got more cement over your heart than they poured on Chernobyl."

She sat back, shoulder to shoulder with him and directed her gaze away, cutting the confrontation and settling in whether he liked it or not.

"Start talking, James," she said.

There was a pause, a few seconds of silence, and then to her surprise- he did.


	40. When to look away, and when not to

**Outside the Weather Vane**

**Saturday morning**

**Five days after the war**

"This was a mistake," Annie let her head drop, her forehead resting on Ben's arms which were looped around her shoulders. He felt her tears on his sleeve.

They were standing in the trees a couple of dozen yards from the Weather Vane watching as Hurley and Max and a few of the recruits approached with Sawyer. Then they went down the steps of the hatch, and the steel door shut with a snap.

"I thought it'd be harder if he were just suddenly gone," Annie said. "But this didn't help. I'm amazed Hurley can deal with doing this."

"Your heart," Ben said, "is too soft. And mine is still hard. If it were me he'd be going to that empty island for a lot longer than a month."

"It'll probably feel a lot longer to him," Annie said, looking at the hatch once more and then starting back toward the camp, keeping hold of Ben's hand. "I'm so glad he picked it, that this was his choice," she said. "I really thought he'd go look for her, not stay and fix things here."

"He chose the place where he already knows half a dozen people who seem able to forgive him anything," Ben said. "And, by the way, a mentally weaker man might be a little jealous at his fiancée weeping over Sawyer."

"Please" Annie was still wiping her eyes but he got half of a laugh out of her. "I guess I have a weak spot for people who need serious help."

"You've come to the right island," Ben said.

"Speaking of coming to the island," Annie said. "There's something I wanted to talk with you about. My mother….. "

"Oh, of course," Ben said, "I've been guessing you'll want to take a trip to the Lamp Post soon, take Joop back to her," he squeezed her hand. "I'm sure she's worried, not hearing from you for awhile."

"Actually," Annie said. "I was thinking not so much of bringing Joop home as bringing her here. How would you feel about that?"

"My mother-in-law," he said "on the island. I'm going to have a mother-in-law on the island. I did not see that coming."

"But you're okay with it? I'm sure you'll get along great…"

"Oh sure: The brilliant, exacting, sharp-tongued co-founder of the original Dharma Initiative and me, I'm sure we'll get along splendidly."

He exaggerated the end of the sentence to draw another laugh out of her and it worked, and he kept looking for new ways to make her laugh all the way home. He hoped when she remembered this walk someday, she'd barely remember the part when she'd been crying.

**Rose and Bernard's Cabin**

"Do you hear that?" Bernard asked. He and Rose were kicked back in lawn chairs along one side of their cabin. Walt and Joop and Vincent were running randomly nearby, playing some sort of game. Bernard had watched them for hours without quite understanding what the rules were, but it worked for them and kept them out of their hair so it was Rose and Bernard's favorite game.

"You mean the plane?" Rose said. "The hydroplane that landed in the water about a mile north of here? No, didn't hear it. Because if I heard it, I'd probably have to go help you greet them."

"Party pooper," Bernard said, getting up. "I think you're taking this vacation too seriously."

"Have fun," she said. "I'll be here with my books."

"Hey Walt," Bernard yelled over. "Want to come welcome Richard and Frank home?"

"Yeahhhhh!" Walt yelled and started running north toward the beach, his entourage abandoning the game to chase right behind him and they both laughed at the uproar it created as they ran through the grass to the tree line.

"You won't have to worry about finding Richard, he'll hear that," Rose said.

**The Barracks**

Annie and Ben were walking into the camp, watching the endless construction work going on when Annie dropped Ben's hand and started walking quickly toward the gazebo. He looked over to see what had drawn her away, and he saw Elian sitting on the one side of it that was still solid. She was staring straight ahead, her eyes scanning among the workers intently.

"Elian, you're up!" Annie peered at her closely, "you left the Staff…"

Annie noticed she seemed a little out of it, hazy, not at all the five-foot-one inch dervish who'd broken her out of her room on the ship and gotten them to the lifeboats. But, she thought, that probably had a lot to do with the stitches in the gash above her left eye and the bruised ribs and hip and concussion she'd suffered, not to mention the remains of the meds that had given her a few days of very deep sleep.

"I'm looking for Miles," Elian said, smiling just slightly then looking back at the workers. "Someone told me there's a man named Miles here who knew my sister."

"I'll go find him," Ben motioned for Annie to stay.

"Are you sure you're ready for this?" Annie asked and Elian nodded.

"Whatever happened to her, it can't be any worse than what I've been imagining in my head. And then I'll know, and I'll be free." She looked back at Annie, smiling again and her eyes were tearing up. "Hurley said I could stay. I came here to try to take all this away from him, and he said I can stay."

"That's great!" Annie shook her by the shoulders a bit, as if trying to jostle her out of her funk. "Of course you can, we wouldn't have made it without your help."

Elian started to say something, but stopped as they were both distracted by new arrivals. Hurley was back from the Weather Vane, surrounded by the crew he'd gone out with that morning and the crew he'd run into on the way home.

"The teenager is Walt," Annie said, starting the introductions for Elian. "And the man with the grey hair is Frank, I guess- I haven't met him, he's a pilot, he's been working for them off-island for a few weeks."

"Who's the man with the gorgeous eyes?"

"Elian!" Annie gave her a look.

"I'm doped up, but I'm not dead," Elian said. "He's lovely. Who is he?"

"That's Richard, he's Hurley's third in command. I don't know the woman he's talking with."

"Oh, I do," Elian sounded hugely impressed and maybe a little frightened. "Her picture is all over the research we did trying to get here. I heard my parents talking about her growing up, what a ferocious adversary she is. Be careful when you meet her," Elian said. "You really want to get off on the right foot. You want Eloise Hawking on your side."

Just then they heard Hurley whistling for the attention of the work crews, who stopped hammering and sawing.

"We've got family that just came home," Hurley said, "And visitors in town. Three days off everyone- time for another beach party."

"Didn't you all just have a two day barbeque to celebrate?" Elian asked over the cheers.

"Yeah," Annie nodded, smiling and shaking her head. "Hurley's had it with hard times. I think we're going to have a lot of festivities the next few months."

**The Beach near the Barracks**

**Sunset on Saturday**

"So if Eloise is here," Penny was holding a plate up for Charlie, letting him pick at bites of grilled chicken and veggies, "Who's running the Lamp Post?"

"That kid, Evan," Desmond said, "The trainee who was traveling with Sawyer and Annie stateside. They told Eloise it's a vacation, but I'm pretty sure Hurley has her here for a purpose."

Desmond nodded to where Kate was walking slowly around the circle of revelers.

Everyone was loosely grouped in the sand around a huge bonfire, and Penny watched Kate after Des pointed to her, noticed her walking one way and then another, sitting next to Bernard who was next to Walt, and then getting up and walking toward the food tables a few yards back.

"I forget," Penny said, "Why is there bad blood between them?"

"Something about Kate lying to her, to convince her to help them get home." Desmond said, "I think she told her that Daniel was still alive to get her to send help fast."

"No," Penny's hand instinctively went to Charlie's curls. "How horrible. The things we've had to do the last six months."

"Yeah. Hurley wants them on good terms. 'Cause if there's anyone who can best advise a single mother of an island baby who's considering playing with space and time again, it's probably Eloise."

Halfway around the circle, Hurley had Frank on one side of him, Richard on the other.

"So not that we're in any hurry to see you go," he told Frank, "But I'm guessing you're ready to get back to whatever normal is going to be for you now?"

"Love to," Frank shrugged. "But there's a problem. Richard didn't tell you?"

Hurley looked over at Richard.

"We took the temperature on Frank's name while we were traveling and visiting California. Apparently when you lose a jumbo jet full of people for a week and the people don't reappear, it doesn't get forgotten quickly," Richard said.

"Looks like you'll have another set of hands around to help," Frank said. "I'm not going anywhere for a few years."

"Great," Hurley said, "We can sure use you, we…." He stopped in mid-sentence to give off a huge yelp.

"Damn, Kate," he looked up to see her standing over him, her fingers digging sharply into his shoulder.

"Sorry, lost my balance a little," she stood, a hand on her back.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. Where are Annie and Ben?"

"They went back to the camp for a sec. Someone forgot to bring dessert. Why?"

"Nothing, It can wait until they're back," Kate waved an apology, started back around the circle again.

A few feet away Miles and Elian were sitting with Max and Eloise, who were having a polite disagreement about the Weather Vane.

"I'm sorry, Doctor Tegmark, you'll never convince me it shouldn't be shut down," Eloise said. "The temptation to abuse it is too strong."

"You could say that about this entire place," Max said. "And happily for the researcher in me, Hurley agrees."

"Touché," Eloise quit her argument gracefully… for the moment.

Sunset turned to full on night, and Annie and Ben were back when Hurley decided it was time for force Elian to mingle a little. He'd noticed her planted across from him on the other side of the fire, deep in conversation with Miles, and it hit him that she was obsessing on talking about Charlotte.

He went to detach her from Miles, and introduced her to Bernard, Desmond and Penny. She got a polite nod from Eloise, which was a relief, a nod from Max, and then they were back where Hurley had started.

"You know Ben and Annie," he said, leading her by the hand just past them, "But you haven't met Richard," he said, giving her a not so subtle push to sit. "Richard, this is Elian Staples. She's kick-ass."

"So I've heard," Richard shook her hand. "I hope you're feeling better. Thank you for helping our friends."

"You're welcome," Elian said and smiled for the second time all day as Annie shot Hurley a quick, amused look that went over everyone else's head.

"Now let me find Kate, you haven't met her," Hurley started walking the circle, stopped and walked back the other way. "That's weird. She was here…."

He stopped and looked back at Annie again and both of their smiles were gone.

"Have you seen her since you got back?"

"No," Ben said, we've been here a quarter of an hour. She hasn't been around at least that long. Why?"

"Oh hell," Hurley said.

"You don't think?" Annie didn't want to finish.

"That she's both running for the Weather Vane and starting to have the baby?" Hurley asked. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's happening."

"Dammit," Annie got up and bolted, calling for Walt to follow as she did.

"Want help?" Richard asked Hurley.

"Yeah, can you get a stretcher from the Staff and meet us? In case we get to her in time?"

Elian was up before Richard.

"I'll go too," she said. "I can help, even if I just carry one of the torches."

"Great," Hurley nodded back to Ben. "Take care of things here?"

"Absolutely," Ben said.

"It'd be nice if we could go twenty four hours between one crisis and the next," Hurley said.

"Maybe tomorrow," he heard Ben say.


	41. Kate's Baby is Born

"Kate, stop!" she heard Richard's voice about thirty yards behind her, Annie right there with him. "Wait!"

She looked back, then ahead to the Weather Vane and she knew they'd get their wish: There was no way she'd make it the last fifty or so steps to the hatch right now, not while this latest round of pain was pulsating through her in waves, shooting through her lower back like the sharpest knife, making it very hard to fight the urge to drop to her knees.

Seconds later they were running around the corner at her: Richard, Elian, Annie, Hurley and Walt, and they froze when they saw her doubled over, holding onto a tree and laughing and crying at the same time. She was crying at the misery she was in, laughing at the sight of them seeing it and looking like they wanted to run right back the other way.

Then Annie was with her, coaching her to breathe through the pain.

"You do know," Hurley yelled, sounding out of patience, "That you've been running away from the Staff and all the medical equipment and drugs and to a place where they have nothing," he was a more worked up than any of them had seen him, even during the war, and Richard looked surprised. "Nothing they can do to help you?"

"I wasn't going to stay," Kate straightened up to standing, tears drying on her face. "I was going to get him, bring him here."

"Oh, no," Hurley started walking in circles. "No. That sounds like the worst idea ever. It's bad enough you going over there and…."

Then he stopped and saw her expression, the one telling him she would be fighting her way past them all to the hatch right this moment if she had it in her, and it broke his heart.

"Please, Hurley," she said. "Just until the baby gets here…"

"Go," he pointed toward the camp, the Staff. "Walt and I will get him."

They watched while everyone else started back, Kate refusing the stretcher for the moment, Richard and Annie helping her walk.

Once they were out of sight Hurley looked at Walt.

"Okay, man, here's why I hate this time and space stuff," Hurley said. "What if we go back to before they left their island and we get him, and something about that, us going there, it screws everything up? And they never make it home all because we did this? Kate doesn't have it in her to think about that now, we have to do it for her."

"That's entirely possible," Walt said, suddenly sounding as cool and clinical about it as his new teacher Max, and Hurley threw up his arms.

"But..." Walt paused. "What if it's the other way around? Kate said John Locke told her things didn't go all that great, right? What if everything only gets better for them if we do go back again? "

"Aww, crap," Hurley said, waved Walt toward the hatch. "Okay. Here goes…"

The last few minutes of the walk back to camp were a painful, exhausted blur to Kate and then she was on the operating table in the Staff, staring at the ceiling tiles, counting them, waiting for things to get worse.

She heard Annie sending Richard for Bernard in case she needed help with anesthesia, and then she was hooking up monitors, taking data, and Kate fell into a light, jumpy sleep for a few minutes until she felt a kiss on her lips, on her forehead. She opened her eyes.

"How did it go?" Jack asked her. "Your war over here? How did it work out?"

"We won," she felt woozy, looked down when she felt a pinging, pinching sensation and noticed an IV in her hand. It hit her they'd given her meds she had no idea about, but that was fine by her. It felt so good to not feel bad. "We made it through. Why aren't you helping Annie?"

"Because she told me to leave her alone unless she asks for help," Jack said. "Or else. I'm pretty sure she means it, so I'm hanging out here with you for now. That okay?"

She saw he was sitting on a chair next to her, his face near her neck, then near her cheek. She could hear a flurry of things happening around them, the intensity of it ramping up, and she tried to enjoy the next few seconds, him kissing her randomly, pretty sure it wouldn't last.

"Thank you for coming over," she said, and he nodded, smiling and looking a little confused at the same time.

"It's very weird – seeing people I don't even recognize talking with Hurley, with Walt, like they've known them forever. I've only known them a few weeks myself." 

"Probably Ben and Richard," she said. "They work for Hurley."

"Uh, yeah, and then there's that," Jack said, "It's great to see him like this, it's amazing watching him give orders. But it's odd. And he doesn't seem to be able to look me in the eye."

"It's only been six months since we lost…. him," Kate said. "You. And he was fond of you, he looked up to you. I think it's probably really weird for him right now, too."

Jack looked away, back at her and nodded, left it at that.

Then she heard Annie ask for him and he was out of her sight and they were walking out of the room together, voices low, collaborating. She drifted in and out of awareness, and then she heard Annie calling her name.

"Kate, can you hear me?" She nodded, and Annie sat with her. "Everything's okay, but I don't think it'll stay okay unless we go with a C-section. You're having your baby a week, maybe ten days earlier than I even thought… so now we're officially in preemie range. And, frankly, you've been through a lot lately and I think you've used up whatever energy reserves you might have had. Do you agree? Are you okay if we get your baby out here with us in a quarter of an hour instead of ten or fifteen hours?"

"Oh yeah," Kate said. "I am so good with that. You have no idea."

"Great," Annie said. "If we were stateside I'd have to have you sign about a dozen sheets of paper, but here I just want you to remember you told me so, okay?"

"Okay," it felt to Kate like it took about five minutes to get that one word out of her mouth and she realized new meds had started running through her IV the moment she'd agreed. She saw Annie go, fought to keep her eyes open, saw Jack sitting down with her again.

"You're not going anywhere?"

"Not unless you want something. Coffee? Ice cream? A steak and some French fries?"

She laughed out loud, saw him smiling down at her and the room went pixelated and grey and then black. It was the only time in her life she would ever be glad to pass out.

"That is the longest, skinniest baby I've ever seen."

They were the first words Kate heard when she surfaced, in Hurley's voice.

She opened her eyes very slightly and saw that she was in the Staff still, but lying now in the recovery room where Elian and Sawyer had been just days ago. Jack was sitting immediately to her right with her son stretched out over his forearms, the baby's head in his hands and Hurley was kicked back in a chair just beyond him.

She shut her eyes again, in no hurry to break up this conversation.

"And a head full of really black hair," she heard Jack. "Another generation of Shephard men, doomed to have to shave every single day, maybe twice a day, for about sixty years."

"Oh God," Hurley said. "Seriously, when you get back to your L.A., man, don't grow a beard, okay?"

"Why would I grow a beard, Hurley?"

"Just trust me, you might get the idea and it's bad, dude. It's a bad idea and a bad beard and it's like a shield against things going wrong but it doesn't work. I'm just saying… don't."

"That's fine," Jack was laughing under his breath now and she opened her eyes again just a touch to see him staring down at the baby, entranced. "I won't, I promise."

"Anything I can do for you, while I'm here?" Jack asked, glancing over at him and back down. "What can I tell our Hurley for you?"

"Huh," Hurley said, like he hadn't anticipated the question. "Tell him to get his own apartment. And that he should start running the companies he owns. Tell him it's okay if he has no clue, he can take it a step at a time. And tell him he has it in him to lead, even if he thinks that sounds absolutely crazy right now."

"Good," Jack said. "That's great. I'll tell him that, for sure."

Hurley looked up then, saw Kate awake and smiling at them, her eyes wet with tears.

"Hey, how long have you been awake?" Hurley asked.

"A couple of minutes," she said. "I was enjoying hearing you two talk."

She looked at Hurley over Jack's head, and from their experiences together no words were needed: He could see her asking if he'd told Jack anything about his group's iffy escape from the island, and she could see the short, sharp shake of his head that told her no, they hadn't discussed it at all.

"How about you enjoy saying hello to your son?" Jack stood, set him in her arms and Hurley was gone in a hurry.

"I'll give you all a few minutes," he said on the way out.

Kate was kissing the baby's head, drawing in the scent of him, her tears falling on the blue onesie they'd dressed him in, and Jack sat down, watching it all.

"He is tall," Kate said, running a hand over him from head to toe.

"Twenty three inches," Jack said. "I'm thinking NBA, maybe?"

"Baseball," Kate said. "Not basketball, baseball. His mom's from Iowa."

"Good point," Jack said. "What's his name?"

"Damn," Kate said, one hand going up in the air, like, 'please help me out here'. "I have been thinking about that every night as I go to sleep, and I can't come up with anything I like. I know his middle name is Samuel, for my dad, Sam Austen. But I can't come up with a first name I like."

"Samuel. Sam. Sam Shephard. I like that for a first name. But isn't that a famous astronaut?" Jack asked and Kate shrugged. "No, not an astronaut," Jack said. "A writer. Well, okay, if Sam's the middle name, not the first name, you could name him after my grandfather."

"Raymond?" Kate almost yelled it, so loud that Jack ducked down to comfort the baby, but he was oblivious, sleeping right through it.

"No," Jack laughed. "No one has called my father's father Raymond for a very long time, that's why he's just 'Ray' to everyone. Even he wouldn't want you to name him that. How do you know him, anyway?"

"I met him," Kate said. "In L.A. We went to the group house where he lives. He was sweet. He was funny and smart."

"Yeah, he's a good person. But, I was thinking of my mom's father. He and my grandmother, they live in Malibu. She's the cool grandmother, she surfed into her sixties and she still boogie-boards. All the kids in the neighborhood love her because she's always up for an adventure, a trip to the beach or another country or something. Her husband, he's the best, kindest person I've ever known. My dad's family never liked the two of them, they thought they were hippies. Sometimes, growing up," he shook his head, looking far away, "I couldn't wait for summer, when school was done and my parents let me stay with them until September. I lived for those ten weeks of every year."

"What's his name, your mom's dad?" Kate asked. "Is it a little more modern than Raymond?"

"It's ancient, actually," Jack said. "Hebrew. But it has a modern feel, too, it works now. It's David. My mom's dad is named David."

"David Samuel Shephard," Kate said, looking down at her son. "David Samuel Shephard, clean your room! David Samuel Shephard, I don't care where you found that puppy, we can't keep him…" she said and Jack was laughing now, his hand going to her head, his fingers running through her hair.

"What is it with moms?" he asked. "Someday I'll tell him you were riding him at two hours old, and I'll bet he won't even be surprised."

"Probably not," she said. "I'm terrible with this stuff. What does David mean?"

"Beloved," Jack said. "David means 'beloved'."

"Perfect," Kate said. "That's perfect. Sold."

"I love you," Jack said, saw her nodding furiously.

"I know. I love you, too. And I do mean you," she said, "You know that, right?"

"No pressure," Jack said. "I just wanted to say it in case I make it home and you never show up. If you never show up, I want to know that it's because something went wrong here, and not because you changed your mind."

"I won't change my mind," Kate said. "I'll wait a couple of weeks, get my strength back, and then we're coming to look for you. Are you anywhere near ready for that? For an instant family?" she asked, saw him nodding.

"Yes," he said. "So ready. I am two lifetimes ready for you."


	42. LA Four of Five: What Kate Finds

**The Barracks**

**Nineteen days after the war**

**Saturday Morning**

"Hello?" Kate called out, walking to the back of the bungalow. She found Eloise dragging a rake along the edge of the building with bags of flower seeds at the ready. She had a floppy hat, khakis and a button-down blouse, sleeves rolled up. "Eloise, what are you doing? It's ninety degrees out."

"I know," she stopped, "But it's a sweet, smog-free ninety degrees, isn't it? Living in a city all those years, working in that hatch: However long I stay here, I want flowers. Hurley had all of this delivered to me with the last food drop."

Kate thought that Evan might be running the Lamp Post longer than anticipated.

"Do you need me to babysit, dear?"

Eloise set the rake against the wall, walked over to peer down at where David was sleeping against Kate in his baby bjorn, not a blanket but an actual, factory-made baby carrier Hurley had also ordered up as a present.

"No, thanks," Kate smiled down at him then looked Eloise in the eyes. "I need you to write that letter now. It's time."

"Well of course, but right this moment?" she asked, and saw the slightest of a determined nod from Kate. "Ah yes, pull off the Elastoplast quickly. No long goodbyes," Eloise patted her on the arm, started walking toward the house.

It was cool in the bungalow and Kate fed David a bottle in peace while Eloise wrote. She looked up at her every so often and felt for the hundredth time this month what a horrible thing she'd done telling Eloise that Daniel was alive when he wasn't. Oddly, though, the only one who didn't actually seem to hold it against her even a little was Eloise.

"I didn't think you had it in you to fool me," she had said when they had their big talk, "And you had the right to want to hurt me; we used you all horribly to save the island. Really, in the end we both did what we did simply because we had no choice."

Now she was folding three sheets of paper, her handwriting on all six sides, single-spaced. She tucked them into an envelope and sealed it, signed her name over the flap and handed it to Kate.

"That ought to do it," she said.

The letter was necessary because they'd all realized that in order to go to Jack's L.A Kate would have to go through the Weather Vane to a Lamp Post station on that side, one run by an Eloise who worked for a Ben who sunk the Searcher and tried to kill all her friends. That epiphany almost convinced Hurley to shut down the Weather Vane entirely until Kate came up with a solution he could live with. 'She recognized her own handwriting before,' she'd said, 'she will again, I know she will.'

"What did you write?" Kate asked as Eloise sat next to her on the sofa.

"I told her you are no threat to them. And I told her a bit about what you and I have each been through. And," she said, "I told her one of the three of us, at least, should get her damned chance at a happy ending."

"Thank you," Kate said, "so much."

"You're welcome," Eloise stood again, walking her to the door. "Oh, and I put in the wording about her letting you come back through twice a year to visit."

"Do you think she'll even consider it?"

"Oh, yes, quite sure," Eloise said. "I gave her some intel she can use to her advantage against… 'er, with her Charles, her Benjamin and her Richard," she said. "It should all prove valuable enough to win you travel rights."

"Oh, my!" Kate was grinning, shaking her head as Eloise winked and shut the door.

**L.A. Four of Five Via the Weather Vane**

**Hertz Rental Pickup **

**Saturday Afternoon**

"Almost there, baby," Kate adjusted the straps, made sure David was as well-positioned in the back seat car carrier as his tiny self could be.

He'd barely spent more than a few minutes of his life anywhere but in someone's arms or in the bjorn, and now he was pitching his first real fit. Kate thought she really didn't need any more tears today. Leaving hadn't been as easy as ripping off a band-aid, not at all. Her own excitement grew every hour once she'd made up her mind it was time to go, but Hurley's distress grew in equal proportion. She even set out for the Weather Vane faster than she'd planned, half afraid he'd take a sledgehammer to it and keep her there.

"I can't believe we might not see you or the baby for months," he'd said, "if we're lucky."

"Well how about the last time we left?" Kate asked. "When we were ready to just take off, abandon you, never see you again? I don't know what we were thinking."

"Um," Hurley shrugged, kept walking toward the hatch. "You were thinking the island was about to sink and you didn't want to die. I really can't hold that against you."

"You know what I mean," she set a hand on his shoulder as they started down the steps. "I'll never leave you forever again, Hurley, not on purpose anyway."

"I know," he said. "I know you won't."

She had convinced herself she might not even need Eloise's letter, maybe she'd make her way out of the Lamp Post without running into her counterpart at all, but fate and timing weren't giving her any breaks there. She arrived sitting, hunched down to protect the baby, opened her eyes to see the pendulum coming straight at them and she rolled to one side of it with a little shriek.

This Lamp Post's Eloise was sitting at the computer bank looking not even the least bit perplexed to see her, and when Kate got up and started to run for the door she just barked a loud 'Stop!' Kate did, turned slowly to see her pointing a gun at them.

"Please," she stayed where she was, hands up, and slowly reached with her fingertips for the letter in the front of the baby carrier. "Please read this. Five minutes, and then if you're not convinced you can call Richard and Ben."

Eloise walked just close enough to her to see the signature on the back of the envelope.

"Open it, please, and give me the letter," she held out a hand, took it from Kate and flipped it open, holding it so she could both read and watch her at the same time. When she got to the bottom of the first page and realized she'd have to turn the page entirely over in order to go on, she laughed again.

"I would make it as difficult as possible for me to read this," she said, "If only to give you a chance to bolt. Or pounce. Please sit," she waved the gun to the computer bank, the very furthest point from the door and Kate walked that way, had a seat, her hand shielding David's head.

Eloise only dropped the gun long enough to turn pages, reading all six sides slowly, carefully. Kate could feel herself getting jumpier as she finished, knowing she was seconds from finding out if she'd go free or end up the prisoner of a very different Ben than the man she'd had lunch with yesterday.

Eloise didn't exactly crumple the paper when she was done, it was more like a distracted, one-handed folding and Kate's heart fell. Eloise looked around the room, at the computer banks, back to see her pulling her baby closer to her and she started slowly shaking her head.

"One trip a year, no more," she said. "I don't want to see you here otherwise, ever. And if you or your friends give us any trouble, directly or indirectly, I will find you and take care of the matter myself."

"Did they make it home?" Kate could barely get the question out. "What do you know?"

"I know a bit," she said, "But not what you want to know. I know you lost friends the night they escaped, and I know they took down some of my friends in the process. Don't mistake me, Kate," she stepped back, pointed to the door. "Your Eloise may be your friend. I'm not."

She was out of there in hurry, not caring that it took over half an hour to walk to the nearest car rental agency – she'd barely stopped shaking when she got there.

They survived it, though, and now she was parked near Jack's apartment, walking toward it, catching sight of Margo Shephard headed for a Mercedes that sat in his parking space. She was frowning slightly, concentrating on trying to open the passenger side door without dropping the box in her arms.

"Margo?" Kate called it out before it hit her what she was doing. She thought fast, walking over the rest of the way over, getting the door for her. "I'm Kate, I worked with your son," she said, "until a couple of years ago. I recognize you from a picture…"

She pointed up to the building and Margo set down the box, smiling slightly, reaching out to shake hands, taking off her sunglasses.

"I'd called to say I'd be in town. I was hoping he and I could catch up."

She watched Margo's face fall just a few millimeters.

"I'm sorry," she said, "I wish that were possible…."

She started to go on, but then something in Kate's now-frozen face made her stop. She looked at her closely for a second, and reached over to shut the car door.

"Come upstairs, please," Margo said. "Let's not talk about this in a parking lot."

Kate's remaining hopes evaporated the second they stepped inside. It was too neat and too dusty at the same time, silent in a way that only abandoned places are silent.

She set David on the couch, tossed aside the carrier, as if keeping busy and having something to do with her hands would save her from having to hear what was next. When she got him arranged and looked up, she saw Margo sitting on the chair next to her, perched forward a little, focused not on Kate but on picking her words.

"My son was on a plane that disappeared in September. I'm here digging through his place because we are starting the process of having him declared dead. And if I sound cold about it, or clinical," she paused, her voice catching slightly, "If you wonder how I can sit here watching you cry and not cry too, it's because I lost my husband and my only child in the course of days. I've found when I let myself start, it's not only hard to stop it's hard to even get out of bed in the…."

Kate was looking down, wiping her eyes when Margo stopped flat, and it took her a second to look up. When she finally did she saw it was her who was frozen now, staring at David, standing up to peer down at him, one hand covering her mouth.

"Oh no," Kate said, sat back, shocked out of her own misery at the look on her face, realizing only then that if she saw David's face on some other baby years from know she'd probably know it immediately, too. "I can explain…"

"Why wouldn't he have told us? I don't understand," Margo sat back down. "Why am I finding out this way?"

"I'm sorry," Kate said, "sorry to put you through this, it's so complicated, but, I never worked at the hospital. I just said that because I didn't know what to say to you. I met Jack after our plane crashed."

Margo stared at her blankly for what felt like many seconds and then to Kate's surprise she began laughing hysterically, pealing ripples of mirth that brought a different kind of tears to her eyes.

"Oh my God," she said, "You're out of your mind. He realized he was involved with a girl who was one short putt from insane and he left you. That's it, isn't it?"

She started walking toward the door and Kate got the sense the conversation was over.

"No," she said, "I swear that's not true, but I don't blame you for thinking it, either. It's probably the only logical place to go when you hear that."

Something about the calm in her voice, the lack of any sort of stung, insulted note in it got Margo's attention.

"Can you think of anything at all you can tell me," she said, "anything he told you that no one else would know? And God I hope you can, because if you're lying, if you're making this up, that would be so cruel."

"I know!" Kate threw an arm up, like 'that's it!' "The night before he left for Australia, he was at your house and he told you he wouldn't go look for his dad. He refused outright, and you made him go anyway. He said your exact words were 'You don't get to say no after what you did to him.' Do you remember that?"

Kate didn't have to ask a second time, she could see she did. Margo walked slowly back to the chair, sat staring at David for a second.

"That wasn't even four months ago," she said.

"For you…" Kate said. "For me, it was over three years ago. I wasn't kidding when I said it's complicated. I don't know where to start."

"Start at the beginning," Margo said. "That's usually best. But not now," she picked up the baby carrier, handed it to her. "You should come stay with me for a while. I have a feeling there are things you need time to figure out too, am I right?"

Kate nodded.

"Are you sure you want to invite me before you hear the whole story?"

"I don't see that I have a choice," something close to a smile crossed Margo's face. "It appears this could take some time. And the thought of wandering around my house alone all weekend, wondering how the grandson I didn't know I had is doing and what his mother is all about… well that would be crazy."


	43. The Magic Words

**Margo Shephard's house**

**LA Four of Five**

**Via the Weather Vane**

**Sunday 8:00 a.m.**

Kate's eyes opened to a ceiling fan spinning slowly above her head in a room so quiet she could hear the motor whirring.

"Going in circles," she thought to herself. "That's appropriate. And whatever happens today, it has to end."

She turned to look into the crib next to her, smiling. David was awake, his blue eyes alert, and even though it was weeks too early for him to be making eye contact she swore she noticed his gaze move toward her at least a little, his head turning a touch.

"Good morning, baby," she said, "Don't get too used to this world, okay? I'm not sure if we're staying. It's peaceful, though, isn't it?"

Margo had insisted on the crib even though Kate thought a bassinette might work fine for now.

"It'll give us something to do, putting it together," she'd said as they popped open the box and the two thousand pieces inside slid onto the living room floor. "Who knows, maybe the whole conversation will go better because we have this to focus on."

Kate watched her contentedly sorting and counting the nuts and bolts, peering at the instructions, pushing the rails to one side and the legs to another and she smiled, thinking Christian may have been Jack's father but Jack was Margo's kid.

Once they were organized Margo shot her a nod.

"So, tell me how it is we're here building a crib?"

"You want the truth?" Kate asked, looking a little pained for her, "Even if it makes you wonder again if I'm crazy?"

"Absolutely. Just take it a step at a time."

It had taken hours despite the fact that Kate skipped huge swaths of detail, sometimes out of compassion and others in fear of overloading her. They talked until the crib was built, through dinner, past when they'd realized they should have built the crib upstairs and they hauled it up there somehow. They didn't actually get to the end until it was very late, and they both were very ready for sleep themselves.

Now Kate was walking down to the dining room, carrying David in his bjorn out of habit and ease. She expected, for some reason, that Margo would be somehow distant and chilly this morning after having eight hours to contemplate everything she'd heard the night before but she looked up from the dining room table with a smile.

"Did you sleep?" Margo asked.

"Eventually. You?"

"A bit," Margo said, continuing to sort the paperwork in front of her, a cup of coffee sitting just above the stacks. "Scrambled, or poached?"

"What?" Kate asked.

"Your eggs," Margo got up and Kate started to stop her but she insisted. "You take care of him. I'm perfectly happy to have someone to cook for."

"Thank you," Kate said. "Scrambled."

There was a pause while Margo cooked and hummed and Kate poured herself coffee from a carafe on the hutch and wandered around the huge dining room, the empty living room. She pictured Margo pacing the six thousand square feet of the house on her on her own the past few months and prayed she'd never take that walk herself. She looked down at David, and reached to kiss the top of his head.

"So are we going with the plan?" Margo asked from the other room.

"Yes, I think you had a good idea," Kate said, "We'll drive to Hurley's parents' house or at least where I think it should be. It doesn't give me much hope that the phone number I had for them was wrong here. Who knows where they really live?"

"Well, we'll go look with our own eyes and at least you'll know. I was thinking a few minutes ago," she was back with breakfast now, setting down a plate for Kate and then rifling through her paperwork again. "There's another mystery you might be able to solve for me."

"Of course," Kate dug in, "Whatever I can do."

"It took us weeks to get my husband's death certificate," Margo said, pulling a legal sized envelope out of the pile, pausing. "And when it arrived I was in no shape to think about legal matters," she pulled a document of about fifteen pages out, started flipping through it.

"When I was finally ready we read his will and to my amazement," she ran a finger down the page she'd been looking for. "He left a very sentimental gift and a good deal of money to someone I've never heard of in my life. I don't begrudge her them, but I would like to know who the hell she is."

"Claire!" Kate dropped her fork, stood, shaking her head. "Oh my God, I never told him. There was so much going on and she was missing and I was so focused on getting them all away and our own worries at home, I never had five minutes to think straight. God, I half forgot he didn't even know…."

"It's okay," Margo didn't get up, but gestured her toward the table, urging her to sit. "You're still exhausted, everything's out of proportion for you. Whatever it was about this person that you forgot to tell him, it couldn't have been as enormous a thing as you're feeling it is right now."

Kate sat.

"Actually, it kind of is," she said, "I'm sorry, I'm afraid this is going to be hard on you."

"Well," Margo set down the envelope, "I didn't think a name in my husband's will that I'd never heard before was going to be happy news, exactly."

"Claire was on the plane. And she's…."

The phone rang and Kate jumped and Margo laughed out loud at the timing. They both looked at the phone on the hutch as it rang a second and a third time and then Margo was up.

"I'd better take this," she said, "I can never let a phone ring, it's just a bad habit of mine….. hello?"

She walked toward the kitchen as she talked, bringing her empty coffee cup to the sink and Kate almost wanted to put her head on the table at the various things she was thinking, wondering how she was going to finish the explanation when the call was over.

"I'm not sure what you're talking about," she heard Margo say, "but I don't know you, and I don't hold telephone conversations with people I don't know so if you're really trying to sell me something you can forget…"

There was a pause and then her voice again, more impatient now.

"Listen, Mister Jarrah, I told you,"

Kate was out of her seat so fast she never even felt herself running to the kitchen, and she got there as Margo gasped out loud, leaned against the counter and handed her the phone.

"It's someone named Sayid," she said. "He says Jack's alive. He says they're in Nauru. Do you know where that is?"

"Yes," Kate took the phone, turning almost in a circle in astonished relief, "I sure do. Sayid? Is it really you?"

**The Island**

**Hurley's Bungalow**

It was the first morning since the end of the war that Hurley was planning on doing exactly nothing. The recruits were rebuilding the barracks under Bernard and Miles' guidance. Max Tegmark was headed to work with Richard and Walt, ready to train them on the full potential of the Weather Vane. Ben, Annie and Desmond were surveying the hatches, deciding which ones would be rebuilt and which ones razed.

They were all on it, and for once, happily, there was nothing for him to do.

He'd gotten barely a dozen pages deeper into The Return of the King when there was an urgent knocking at his door.

"No, no no!" He shouted. "It's my day off."

More banging.

"All right," he pulled his feet off the coffee table and went to open it. "What?"

Richard and Walt were standing there and the worried looks on their faces made him forget his annoyance.

"I'm afraid," Richard said, "We still have a saboteur on the island."

It took them twenty minutes to get to the Weather Vane, and when they walked through the damaged door and down the iffy steps they found Max inside staring at it sorrowfully. The building itself had sustained a lot of damage in the war but Richard had managed to save the infrastructure. Now big chunks of it were clearly fried, the smell of electrical fire in the air and tiny wisps of smoke still leaking from some of the machines.

"They torched it, somehow," Max said, somewhat numbly, "Sent a power surge through it. The guidance system, the databases that monitor the other locations, the sending mechanisms: They're all badly damaged."

"Kate," Walt said, looking at Hurley. "What if she wants to come back?"

"Kate will be fine," Hurley said, "I hope."

Then his head dropped.

"Sawyer. Oh no, what the hell…. we can't get to him."

"Who would do this?" Richard stopped in mid-thought, then shook his head with an unhappy grimace. "There are two people who wanted this thing shut down: Ben and Eloise."

"Don't go there," Hurley said, "There's no way they'd do this to us or to them."

"Then who?" Richard asked. "We know the recruit pool is clean now, we know everyone on the island, who else would do it except the two people who were most insistent it be shut down?"

"Ahhh," Hurley looked up at the ceiling, the light dawning. "That's it. Their Ben, their Eloise, they did this."

"They figured out how to use their Weather Vane," Max said, "At least in a rudimentary way. And they've locked us out."

"How fast can you fix it?" Hurley asked and Max laughed grimly, looked up.

"I'm a physicist, not an engineer Hurley. And don't you see what I'm seeing? It'll take weeks, months if we're lucky. Building it the first time took us ten years."

"We don't have years," Hurley said. "I promised him we'd get him back here in a month. That's what we've got, a month."

"I'll make a list," Max got up, searching for something to write on. "Things I'll need- parts, tools, computers."

"I'll get Frank, have him fire up the plane," Hurley started to the door and Richard followed. "I hope it has enough fuel left in it for him to fly it somewhere he can get more fuel. Walt, stay here and help Max with his list, okay?"

"Don't beat yourself up, Hurley," Richard said as they went. "You didn't know this would happen."

"I should have thought of it. Richard, no matter how mad you are, you should never lock up a friend away behind a door so strong you may not be able to open it again. What if Max can't fix it?"

"He will," Richard said, "He has to, so he will."

**LA. Four of Five**

**Margo's House**

Margo hadn't even waited for Kate to hang up; Kate found her upstairs in her room packing. There were two chairs at the far end of the room near a bay window and Kate went to one of them, sat wiping her eyes.

"What did he say?"

"Come sit," Kate nodded to the other chair, waited until she did to start.

"They went through a terrible time getting where they are," she said, paused.

"Sayid said they only made it to something close to civilization four days ago. Before that, they washed up on this little island that didn't have much of anything, not even a real hospital. It was bad, several of them were hurt and they're still recovering."

"How did they make it to where they are, then?" Margo shook her head. "With no one there they know, no one to help them?"

"Our friend Hurley," Kate said, "He has the kind of money that can move mountains if you need them moved. He got them to Nauru, to a private hospital. They didn't call you until now because they didn't know if he'd make it. Sayid said any way they discussed it, it seemed cruel to call with such bad and iffy news out of the blue."

"What happened?" Margo's voice was barely a whisper.

"The night they got away their lifeboats were attacked, and he and our friend Desmond nearly drowned pulling some of our other friends out of the water. Desmond wasn't as bad off, and they got Jack breathing again but he's never woken up since. He's been on a respirator since they got to Nauru, but now he's off it and more stable… so they figured it was time to tell you so."

She could see Margo wanted to cry but she wasn't going to give in to it.

"Why don't you call and buy us plane tickets, and I'll keep packing?"

"No," Kate reached over and took her hand. "I'm going to go get them, but I'm not taking a plane. I thought I could just come over here and forget about the people they fought so hard to escape, but that was never going to work," she said. "I have to go force a truce with them, so we can live the rest of our lives without looking over our shoulders. Then I'll get them home and I swear, life will get better."

"How in the world do you think you're going to convince the kind of people who did what they did to call a truce?"

"It hit me while I was on the phone with Sayid," Kate said. "I know the magic words: I know exactly what to say and who to say it to, and then they'll never bother us again. I promise."

She saw Margo looking around the room, and she realized she was picturing her leaving in a few minutes, being alone again. It made her almost tear up, too.

"You don't have to wait alone," Kate handed her a piece of paper with a phone number and address on it.

"Hurley's parents. They are here in town. He called them from Nauru, and they're waiting very anxiously for him to get home, they're climbing their walls, too. You have to call them, go meet them. They're great! Hurley's mom is a hoot and his dad is a good guy. You might as well get to know them. You'll be seeing a lot of them from now on."

Margo took the paper, nodded, but she still looked scared.

"If you go and never come back, I just don't know. That would be so awful."

"Not going to happen," Kate said. "I wouldn't be taking David with me if I weren't one hundred percent sure that I've got this."

"Call when you get there? Let me know what's going on?"

"Absolutely. And I promise - we'll be home soon."


	44. The Ends

*Note: In honor of LOST's way with non-linear story-telling, this last chapter is a bit all over space and time. THANK YOU so much for reading. And… Namaste and good luck.

**February 2011**

**Inside the Weather Vane**

**Three years after the war**

"Max," Walt looked up from the touch-screen readout he was scrolling through. "Why can we go to any time we want in these other places but not here?"

"We built it that way on purpose." Max Tegmark barely looked up from his screen. "You have good instincts. Why do you think that is?"

"Because…" Walt went back to work, searching. "If you're looking to run somewhere safe, you want options. But if you give yourself too many opportunities to go back or ahead in your own world, you might keep fixing your own mistakes over and over and never accomplish anything," Walt grinned. "Or win the lottery every day."

"Exactly," Max said, "Well put."

"Hey!" Walt shouted, flicked to zoom in on an instance of the island. "Found it! Found him!"

**Two hours later**

**Island Iteration 5 of 5 Via the Weather Vane**

"I'm not sure why you're insisting on this," Richard said. "He'll never remember."

It had taken Max a year to fix the Weather Vane, and when he did they found only one connection to the other worlds was still intact: The one linking them to Kate. Hurley was glad she could visit, and he could see David at one year old and then in his terrible twos, but it had been a constant nagging misery that they couldn't recover Sawyer from the empty place where they'd accidentally abandoned him. It had taken Max and Walt two more years to track it down.

"He won't remember, but it doesn't mean he didn't actually suffer through it," Hurley said. "If I want to hold people responsible, I'd better include myself."

They found the camp deserted. The fire pit was buried in sand, the tent torn apart by wind. Hurley found an empty wine bottle, re-corked, a note inside.

"Don't read it," Richard raised a hand, "There can't be any good in reading that, Hurley."

He opened it anyway and Richard shook his head, watching his face fall.

"He figured out something went wrong," Hurley said. "That we didn't desert him on purpose. He says he forgives me and he's sorry for the last few months."

Hurley gestured out toward the ocean, rolling the note back up.

"He gave up. He thought we'd never find him."

Richard nodded.

"C'mon, let's go get him home."

**April, 2008**

**Island Iteration 5 of 5 Via the Weather Vane**

It was dark out when Richard and Hurley arrived this time. They found a fire burning, Sawyer kicked back on a beach chair near it. He let the book in his hands fall to his chest and shook his head slowly at Hurley, scowling with his eyes and smiling with his mouth.

"Knew you didn't have it in you," He said, picking the book back up, pretending to be reading. "Hasn't been two damned days and you're back for me."

"Yeah, that's it. I'm a horrible leader and I can't make up my mind, and dude let's get out of here," Hurley rattled it off, but Sawyer caught an edge of deep sorrow in his voice and he looked up sharply.

"Well all right, Hugo, geez… help me put this out," Sawyer stood and started kicking sand into the fire. Hurley laughed under his breath at the pointlessness of the exercise on an otherwise empty island, but he and Richard joined in.

Then they were walking toward their ride home in the perfectly black island night, a full moon and a blanket of stars overhead.

"What's the matter?" Sawyer set a hand on his shoulder. Richard kept going as they stopped.

"I made a mistake," Hurley said, looking back toward the water. "I did something I thought was best for you and for all of us, but I was wrong and it went to hell. What happened because of that… well, it's the worst thing I've ever done to anyone."

Sawyer looked up at the sky, shrugged heavily.

"I know the feeling. This mean you believe me, now?"

"Yeah," he said. "I do. I'll explain more later, okay?"

"Fine," they started walking again. "You are going to let me leave this 'effed up place for good, right? 'Cause in case you haven't noticed I really do hate it here."

"Three years," Hurley said. "I need help from people I know."

"Six months," Sawyer said.

"Two years," Hurley said. "Final offer."

Sawyer sighed deeply.

"Fine. Two years."

**April, 2008**

**The Lamp Post**

**L.A. Four of Five**

"Back already?" This time, Eloise hadn't even gotten up from her seat at the computer bank when Kate walked in. "Well, I told you one visit per year. I guess it doesn't matter if it's today or ten months from now."

"That's not where I'm going," Kate faced her calmly, her hand on David's little back, hoping he'd stay asleep for the whole trip. "I want you to send me to Guam. And I want one of your people there waiting to fly me to Nauru. But first, I want to speak with your Benjamin Linus."

Eloise looked like she couldn't decide whether to laugh or ask if she'd lost her mind.

"Dear, If I tell Ben about you he'll want me to ship you to him for less than pleasant questioning."

"He'll let me go, and he'll let my friends be. What I have to tell him is that valuable."

"Give me a moment," Eloise started keying in a message. Kate could sense some back and forth going on, and then a video monitor to Eloise's right kicked on, and she saw Ben sitting in his office on island four of five, staring into the web cam with a question mark and a glint in his eyes.

"Hello, again, Kate," he said. "Good to meet you. I'm intrigued, what do you have that you could possibly think would convince us to let you all be?"

"I can tell you where to find Annie DeGroot," she said, "And about how she's been looking for you for ten years now."

Ben's face changed enough for her to tell she'd hit a nerve.

"If I wanted to find Annie…"

"You haven't looked because you're scared," she cut him off, "You think she won't be able to accept you but she will. "

"Is that all you have to say, Kate?" Ben asked.

"No. That was just for starters. I'm also here because I can prevent you from making the biggest mistake of your life. Will that do it for you?"

Ten minutes later Ben walked out of his office, staring ahead, barely acknowledging Richard waiting in the hallway.

"Send someone to the Guam warehouse," he said, "Kate Austen will be there. Have them fly her to Nauru, and then stand down on her little clique. We're done with them."

"Seriously?" Richard said. "Everything we went to, chasing them, sinking their boat. And now you're going to let them go?"

"Get it done, Richard," Ben said, pulling off his glasses. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to find my daughter. I need to talk with Alex."

**Nauru General Hospital**

**Iteration Four of Five**

One quick trip through the Weather Vane and a four-hour flight later, Kate was walking into the hospital on Nauru. David was stirring, and she put a hand on his head, nervous at who would be there and what she'd find.

"You're heeere!" Her head snapped around the wide waiting room as she walked in, heard the shout, saw Shannon running her way and Sayid behind her, smiling. "We have heard so much about you. And look – it's a Jack and Kate baby," Shannon leaned down, peering at him, cooing. Sayid reached in to hug her.

"So good to see you again," he said.

"Always good to see you, Sayid," she said.

"Come sit with us," Shannon led her over to a sofa, a circle of chairs where more familiar faces waited. "They'll only let us go see them for a little bit at a time, so we've been hanging out here a lot the last few days."

"Them?" Kate asked, smiling as Charlie waved to her, one arm around Claire, Aaron in her arms. Sun nodded over, too, drinking a cup of coffee. It was so average, so normal, and way, way too much all at the same time. She was glad she was sitting.

"Jack and Jin," Claire said, "and Penny. Jin broke his leg when the Searcher sank, but he's doing great. Penny got knocked around pretty bad, but she's doing better. Desmond's with her right now…"

"How's Jack?" Kate asked.

"How about you ask him?" Kate heard Hurley's voice, looked up to see him walking their way from the ward behind the waiting room. "I checked, the nurses say you can go in."

"Hurley," she walked over to him.

"Hi Kate. Very weird to meet you," he grinned. "Only thing is, no babies in that wing."

"I've got him!" Shannon was there in an instant and then David was over her shoulder and Kate was taking off the bjorn, looking from them to the door to the hospital rooms and back.

"Kate, it's okay," Shannon smiled, "We'll be here. We're so not going anywhere."

Somehow, that was the moment it really sunk in: They were going to be okay.

Kate walked into Jack's room, was stunned to see him standing by the window, looking outside, wearing a long robe and sweats pants, clothes that were definitely not him, something someone has picked up for him since they got here.

"Should you be up?" She asked, and he turned and smiled at her.

"Probably not. But last time I saw you, you were flat on your back having a baby. I thought it might be nice if we were both on our own two feet," he paused as she ran over to him, throwing her arms around him and he returned the favor. "Like this. For a minute."

"You did it," she said.

"We did it," he corrected. "You sure you're ready for life here, wondering when they might come after us again?"

"They won't," Kate said. "I made sure."

"How'd you manage that?" Jack asked.

"Tell you later," she held him tighter.

"Kate?"

"Yeah."

"I'm thinking you'll want to keep in touch with your other friends, and I want you to understand I'm fine with that," he pulled back slightly, looked down at her. "But you need to know: The second the plane that takes us home lands at LAX I'm never going anywhere again. Ever. Not negotiable."

"I'm so fine with that," she said. "Oh, and remember how you said you were ready for an instant family?" She looked up, saw his dark eyes smiling, him nodding. "Next time you're talking with Claire, ask her about her dad," she said, her head dropping back to his chest.

"What?"

"Trust me. Ask her."

"Damn," Jack sighed, running a hand through her hair. "What are the odds? Don't answer that. Any other news for me?"

"No," Kate said. "That's it. I can't wait to get you home."

"Me too," he said. "I can't promise it'll be perfect. But I promise we'll be on the same page… every day."

**March, 2011**

**The Island**

**Beach near the Barracks**

"David Samuel Shephard, stop right this second!" Kate chased him, laughing at the way he only shouted and ran faster away from her. She scooped him up as his feet hit the waves, spun him around as he giggled and then she set him down, dizzy, to see Hurley looking exquisitely happy.

"And… there it is," Hurley said, holding his fingers up like a picture frame but she didn't catch on. "The flash I had four years ago when you were barely pregnant: You and your son running on the beach. It happened for real."

"Oh wow," Kate said, catching her breath. "That must be a weird feeling."

"Yeah," Hurley said. "I'm getting used to those, though. I'm so glad you're here. Jack at his conference this whole week?"

"Most of it, yes," she said, scooped David up to her hip as they started back toward the barracks. "I keep waiting for the year he asks me not to come here, but he's great about it."

"Don't suppose you'll ever convince him to come along?"

"I'm not sure I'll even get him to leave our California again."

"Well, I can understand why," Hurley said. "You two still disgustingly happy?"

He saw Kate couldn't even get the words out right away.

"Hurley, for a while I kept looking over my shoulder, waiting for it all to fall apart. I've stopped doing that."

"Excellent," Hurley said.

"It's great to see Emily growing up, she's such a little pee-wee. Ben and Annie have never looked so happy."

"She's practically running the place," Hurley said. "She's the boss of us all. So what's it like living there?"

"I think we're the world's strangest support group," Kate said. "Sayid and Shannon live down the street now, they bought near us. Charlie and Claire are in London but sometimes when he's on the road she and Aaron come to stay with us. It's a little hard on Margo, the fact of Claire, but they can spend time together and get along with each other, so that's great. Des and Penny bought a new boat, but they promised they'd come visit. I'm sure they mean it, they will."

"How about Sun and Jin?"

"They're back in Seoul. Sun's got her father totally cowed with the info we sent her home with. They'll be fine now. And your counterpart? He's running his empire. You're a business tycoon, Hurley."

"You do know this is it?" Hurley asked and Kate shook her head. "That one moment, when everything is perfect and everyone is fine, here and on your side. Let's enjoy it, huh?"

Kate was nodding, smiling when they heard it.

"Daaaviiiid!" Charlie ran screaming down the beach, abruptly tossed an arm full of toys at his feet like a welcome offering. David picked one up.

"Boba Fett!" He held it up to Kate, reached down and showed her another. "Mi-yanium Falcon!"

"Ah yes," Hurley smiled, "Another generation sucked in by the best story ever."

**June, 2024**

**The Island**

**Steps from the Weather Vane**

"Hi, Hurley," Kate reached in for a hug as David dashed by them both on his long legs, running hard toward the barracks.

"Emily and Charlie around?" David yelled as he went.

"Yes, they're expecting you," David was nearly out of sight before Hurley finished. "Teenagers! Can't stick around for a second to say hi…"

He'd been so happy to meet them for their latest visit that he'd barely 'seen' them, but now he was looking back at Kate and it hit him.

"Oh, no, … what? What happened?"

She was standing with her arms wrapped around herself, tearing up, bracing.

"He's gone, Hurley. We lost him last month. He got sick after New Year's, and then it all happened so fast..."

Hurley wanted to ask why she hadn't tried convincing him to come to the island, but then he saw in her face that she had tried.

"How is David doing?"

"Not good," Kate's eyes went down as they walked and Hurley put an arm around her. "I was thinking… maybe we could stay for more than a week this time? Maybe we could stay for the summer?"

"You can stay forever if you want." 

"It's home there," Kate said, "But right now I really can't stand to be in my own house. Thank God Margo didn't live to see this. I keep thinking of the day I found her all alone. I can't do it, I'll go crazy."

"Don't even think about it," Hurley said, "That's so not going to happen."

**February, 2030**

**The Lamp Post**

**Iteration 4 of 5 via the Weather Vane**

He took the steps down into the station two at a time, hands in his pockets and stopped when he saw the woman in skinny jeans and a grey t-shirt. She was pacing, calculating, her dark hair shot with silver tied back. She watched the pendulum swing, made marks in chalk on the floor before she stood, went to enter numbers into a computer. He thought how most kids would kill for a parent this cool with such an amazing a job. If he could tell them about it, that is.

"Hi, mom," he said softly, a little nervous now.

"David!" Kate's eyes lit up, then she squinted at him. "You drove home, you're ditching out on your graduation day aren't you. Why?"

"You know I hate ceremonies," He walked over and hugged her and it hit her again how he'd shot up another inch or two sometime between freshman year and now, how far she had to look to smile at him.

"And there's something we have to talk about. I couldn't tell you on the phone."

"Oh no," she led him over to the chairs by the computers, got an image of sitting there 22 years earlier, holding him to her chest, Eloise pointing a gun at her. Now, through a twist of fate, she ran the Lamp Post on both sides. "It's perfect," Hurley had said, "For someone who can't stand still. Plus, you can have lunch with us, and be home for dinner."

"David, what's going on?"

He'd been facing the computers, but he turned now and took her hand.

"I'm not going to med school. I want to study physics. I have to do what I want, not what you want me to do."

"Well, of course you do," Kate looked surprised but not as disappointed as he feared. "Stanford has a great program. Have you thought about where…"

Her voice trailed off, and he flinched as her eyes shot open wide.

"You're not going to study physics at a university, are you?"

"Hurley has a whole team now, I can learn more from them than I'll ever learn in a school. And it'll give Uncle Walt a chance to focus on other things. Who knows when he'll need to run the place?"

"You've only known it in peaceful times," Kate looked deep into his eyes, insistent. "Anything can happen there, anything."

"Anything can happen here," he said. "And there's another reason."

"Oh?" Kate said it so quietly he barely heard her.

"I asked Emily to marry me, and she said yes. We're going to live there."

"Emily Linus? You're engaged to Emily Linus? She's like a sister to you!"

"No, mom, she's like a sister to Charlie," David smiled at her confusion. "I've loved her since we were about ten. Why do you think I spent the last five summers there, and not here with you?"

"Damn," Kate shook her head. "Anything else I've missed the past decade or so?"

"No, I don't think so," David grinned and her heart broke a little for the billionth time, seeing another smile in his. "That's pretty much it."

"Well, we have a wedding to plan."

"It's being taken care of, mom. We'll need your help transporting some of the guests, though."

**May, 2030**

**The Island**

**Oceanic 815 Beach Camp Site**

"This is, by far," Charlie raised his hand that was holding a beer, gestured widely around the beach, "far and away the oddest wedding ever."

"It's nice, though," Sun said, leaning into Jin, "to see everybody. To see this place again, and have a happy moment here."

They were standing not far from the surf, watching the rest of the guests at the reception. L.A. Claire, L.A. Sayid and Shannon were talking with Kate and David. A few yards away, Emily was introducing Aaron and Ji Yeon to Clementine. Over by the long table that had been set up with food and flowers, Cassidy, Sawyer and Penny were laughing at something Desmond had said. Miles and his wife were sitting with Evan, Max, Richard and Elian, digging into a meal together.

"It is. Lovely. Though I'm still having a hard time wrapping my brain around partying at a wedding with Ben," Charlie shook his head. "Jack's son marrying Ben's daughter. The kids will never get how much that boggles the mind. And I do wish our two Hurleys would mingle more, it's giving me the heebie jeebies watching them walk around like identical twins."

"Well, it is the first time they've met. Have you noticed…" Sun asked, "That Richard and Ben don't look any older than they did when we were here? Is it me?"

"It's not you," Jin said. "I actually asked Richard and he said he's not sure, but he suspects Hurley's done something to keep them around for a very long time. I think they'll be running the show with him long after we're all gone."

"Yup," Charlie said, drinking, "Strangest wedding ever."

Up the beach, Kate walked over to Ben and Annie, topped off their champagne and they clinked glasses, sipped.

"Do you think Hurley knew? About David and Emily?" Kate asked. "I wonder if that's why he asked me to take on the Lamp Post? So I'd get used to going back and forth all the time and not only summers."

"Wouldn't surprise me at all," Annie said. "Hurley takes good care of his people. And he thinks one step ahead, always."

"I'd like to think I taught him that," Ben said and they all smiled, realizing that he'd been joking but it was very much the truth.

**August, 2115**

**The Beach near the Barracks**

Spent: It was the only word he could come up with. He'd been tired for years, maybe a decade. It wasn't depression. It wasn't missing her. He was spent.

"Grandpa, you want some slushie, too?" Four-year-old Yvette plopped down next to him, spooning icy chunks of green and orange snow cone from a cup. Her face was green and orange from it, too, and it drew a small smile out of him.

"No thanks, baby," Richard said, kicked back against a dune, and she sat with him, silently enjoying the once-per-summer ice cream and slushie 'fest Hurley threw.

Richard watched Hurley laughing with the kids: Richard's grandkids, David and Emily's latest little ones, Charlie's son, the children of the security, engineering and science teams – there had to be close to thirty of them now, toddlers and teens who would run the place themselves one day. He remembered those who were gone: Rose and Bernard first, then Hurley's parents. The horrible week when they'd buried Penny and Desmond, lost in an accident no one saw coming and that none of them would ever really get over. And Elian. His unexpected Elian.

David, Emily and Charlie were at the party, now, helping out, looking like they were barely thirty-five, which was about the point where Hurley had suspended them in time. A good place to be, to stay, Richard thought.

He watched Hurley, staring at him until he felt it and looked over. Richard nodded for him.

"Yvette, why don't you go get a refill before the ice all melts," he suggested and she scooted away, grinning, running like a tiny breeze and kicking up sand.

"I hope this isn't what I think it is?" Hurley asked. Richard knew he knew.

"You have to let me go, Hurley."

"Are you sure? Maybe if you wait a week, you'll feel differently?"

"I won't."

Hurley nodded.

"How soon will it…" Richard's voice trailed off.

"I'm not sure," Hurley sat next to him. "Do you want to wait, talk with your kids?"

"No. No reason to put that burden on them. How does this go? When do you do it?"

"Honestly," Hurley said, shaking his head, looking out at the water. "I have no idea exactly how it works. But it's already done."

Hurley realized Richard was serious then, the way he didn't react at all.

"Thank you, Hurley."

Six months later they buried him under the banyan tree between his wives. Isabella's cross hung from the marker to his left, Elian's wedding ring on a chain to his right. Richard asked for no marker, but they ignored that. His had a Weather Vane logo etched in the middle, a battered, worn compass embedded in it.

Hurley had been inconsolable at the ceremony.

"You're not leaving me anytime soon?" he asked Ben.

"No, Hurley," Ben shook his head, the edge of a smile on his lips. "I expect we'll exit stage left at the same time… going down with the ship."

**May, 2044**

**The Island**

**Oceanic 815 Beach Camp Site**

"I'm so glad you could come here for this," Kate stood with her arm around Clementine's shoulder, watching as Hurley, Ben and Richard finished covering the new grave next to Locke and Jack.

Sawyer's daughter had brought some of his ashes to them. It shocked Kate to no end that the idea had been his and not hers.

"He hated this place," Kate said, stopped there.

"But he loved you all. Not that he was very good at saying it. Or showing it. Or even understanding it," she stopped and Kate laughed softly, fighting back tears.

"How is your mom?"

"She's good. They had time to prepare, say goodbye. You know, before he died he saw something," Clementine stopped for a second. "I wasn't going to ask, but you're the only person I can think of who would know if this means anything. It might have just been the drugs they were giving him, but all at once he was talking like he was walking around the hospital, looking for a the cafeteria. Isn't that weird?"

"What did he say, exactly?"

"He asked if there was somewhere to get food, then he said, 'thanks, doc',"

Kate's free hand went to her forehead.

"And then he said something about a vending machine that sold jewels, and that was it. He was gone. I'd dismiss it as a hallucination, but it sounded like it was so real to him. So real."

"Not jewels, honey. He was saying J-U-L-E-S. And thanks – you give me hope. Maybe we'll all see each other again someday."

"I'd like to think that's how it works," Clementine said. "I'm going with that."

**September 22, 2049**

**The path from The Flame to the Barracks**

"Charlie!" David yelled, stopped running, getting his breath back, and then he finally saw his friend catching up to him.

"Don't wait for me," Charlie pointed toward the barracks. "Go ahead. Emily said to tell you…. hurry."

David had been holo-conferencing with one of the off-island research teams when he saw Charlie come flying in, looking frantic, and he didn't have to say much. David knew she had been fading. He knew what date it was today. He was still surprised.

Now he could see the barracks, people watching him, sad for him, as he bolted past them to her bungalow.

"Mom," he yelled, "I'm here… Mom!"

He barely noticed Hurley standing outside, crying, or saw Ben and Annie come out the front door, leaving it open for him as they went to Hurley. Annie put her arms around his neck, her head on his shoulder and he stood there, shaking his head.

"Why wouldn't she take me up on it? I wish she would have."

"I know," Ben said, "But you tried to convince her. And you know why she didn't."

"Yeah," Hurley caught his breath, wiped his eyes on his sleeve as Annie stepped back. "Yeah. I know."

**July, 2230**

**Sub-Basement of the Orchid station**

"Ben, watch out! There's one coming through the vent," Hurley pointed over Ben's head and Ben jumped out of the way. They both aimed their laser guns at the air vent in the ceiling, blasting wildly at the sickly, grey-green tentacled thing that reminded Ben of an oversized oyster with arms and Hurley of a squid on steroids.

More tentacles were reaching through the doors of the Orchid's transporter, twisting and pushing and trying to force them open again. Hurley and Ben both kept shooting as Hurley pressed the button meant to slam the doors shut. Finally, they won the battle if not the war as the metal doors clicked together.

"What planet spawns something that God-awful ugly?" Ben asked and Hurley busted out laughing.

"We are so screwed," Hurley said, and there was a pause as they realized it was true: The island was swarming with these things. Escape was unlikely.

"At least they all made it to the Weather Vane," Ben said, looking at Hurley and nodding. "They'll be fine, Walt and David will make sure of it. And we finally used that hatch for its intended purpose, as an escape route."

"Only took a couple hundred years," Hurley reached his hand out, asking Ben for his gun and he went to reload them both. "They'll win this in the end, I know they will. Now that we shut off the way in," he nodded toward the metal doors. "Our people can keep coming in through the Weather Vane, fight them one day at a time. They'll take the place back."

He handed Ben his gun.

"Now all we have to decide is if we hunker down here, or run up the steps and go take a bunch of them down with us."

Ben stared at the doorway for a second, made a face that suggested he didn't really like either option.

"Hell, let's go for it. Maybe what we do now will mean the difference, give the kids the edge they need to win."

"I like that," Hurley said, walking to the door. "Ready? What now?" He asked, seeing Ben's face both fall and light up a little.

"Maybe I'll see Annie again soon," he said.

"I'm sure you will," Hurley said. "Positive, in fact. Ready?"

"Ready," Ben said, taking the safety off.

They ran up the stairs, guns blazing, fighting one last, good fight together.


End file.
